gateway drug?

I have been reading several articles about marijuana being a gateway drug. This means that by using marijuana you make yourself more likely to start using other more dangerous drugs. I don't entirely agree with this theory. Using marijuana does not in any ways mean that you will move on to other drugs. I think that nicotine and alcohol and even caffeine are the first steps to drug addictions, not marijuana. Marijuana has not been proven to be addictive, but these other legal drugs are. I think that the government for some reason has targeted marijuana as the drug that is giving our country most problems. I believe that it is considered a gateway drug because it is the most common illegal drug. Most people drank milk before they drank alcohol, so it must be milk that makes people drink alcohol. Of course that seems ridiculous, but that is how I feel like they treat marijuana. The government 1.2 billion dollar a year anti-drug budget to me is going to waste. Instead of focusing on marijuana, focus on drugs that are damaging and ruining peoples lives. I know more people messing up their lives hooked on prescription pills, than destroying their lives abusing weed. The anti-marijuana campaign statistically was recently show to be non-effective anyway. Statistics show that marijuana use has increased in our country. It just seems like a waste to me to target marijuana as the main cause of drug problems in this country when to me it is obviously not.