I'd rather be silly and interpret something correctly than be an smart ass and interpret it incorrectly.
He meant 'we' interpret it as a 'gateway to enlightenment' the government see it as a 'gateway to other drugs'.
I really don't see the relevance of how 'we' see something, when the discussion topic was about how the government 'sees something', and one of those things is that Canna leads to harder drugs hence it's a 'gateway' drug as viewed by the government.
Switch your brain on.
blah, blah, blah. i'm stoned.