In some cases, it can. Studies of high school students show that few young people use other illegal drugs without smoking marijuana (“weed” or “pot”) first. For example, the risk of trying cocaine is much greater for people who have tried marijuana than for those who never tried it. This may be because it can seem like less of a big deal to try other drugs once you’ve tried marijuana or it may be that the same things that lead someone to try one drug lead them to try other drugs.