By Sean Mac
Who were you when you first tried this illegal marijuana drug? Were you a young teen trying something out because you were told not too? Or were you an Adult making a decision that you thought adults should be able to make? And how disappointed were you when the world didn’t become trippy colourful with rainbows shooting out everywhere? This paragraph full of questions is just me asking what is marijuana to people in 2012?
The truth then is the truth now! Isn't it?
I personally know lots of people who smoke weed and lots of people who don’t. Its CRAZY that we all get along. I mean a pot head is usually crouched in the corner of their room waiting for their next fix, or stealing money from their poor mother who only wants her child to go to church and become a lawyer. While a respectful citizen works hard, pays their taxes, and only has an occasional Bud Light with their Cheetos.
Don't I look like freedom?
That’s the way things used to be portrayed, but more and more people are finding out that marijuana isn’t the evil drug it’s made out to be. In fact the Canadian Liberal Party in recent months has decided to work on making weed in Canada legal. Which is like sweet cause then I could like blow the smoke in like the cops face and be all like “What up Po-po? Can’t do shit. Can you bitch?”, and like laugh and stuff. It will be totally sick.
Really though it would be sick, and it would solve many problems. Canada desperately can use some jobs right now. I was online job hunting recently and the highest paying job was being a lab rat getting a needle full of sterile salt water injected into you 25 times. Suddenly having marijuana jobs like growing, harvesting, delivering, quality control, safety control, factory workers, distribution, paraphernalia stores, marijuana stores and designated smoking businesses doesn’t seem bad for the economy. And I’m only scratching the surface of the career opportunities.
Sorry sir I'm new at this needle thing. 8th times the charm i guess.....Nope, maybe 9.
Currently in Toronto Ontario there’s about 4 specialty bars I know of that are specifically for weed smokers. They rent out tables with vaporizers and sell food with marijuana baked into it. The bars also rent out bongs and other weed smoking tools but do not sell weed on its own. This isn’t some underground thing either. Cops actually walk through this bar as they do any other bar, but the only extra thing they have to watch for is that someone might be smoking tobacco. Crazy isn’t it? Guess what though; it’s a very, very rare site to see a group of stoned people fight. Stoned people can barley even talk, so I wouldn’t worry about them gathering the energy and precision to throw a punch. There’s never any trouble from the smokers so the city just lets the business do its thing.
Does he want to fight or does he want Doritos?
If businesses such as a weed bar are able to thrive without any drug lord trouble while its technically illegal, imagine what things would be like if it were legal. In this little article I haven’t said anything that’s hasn’t been said before. I just wanted to remind people out there that people who smoke weed aren’t into ecstasy the next day. And I want to ask you hot sexy readers out there what are your thoughts on marijuana in 2012? Should it stay illegal? Or should we be able to buy it when ever we want?
Deadly or Delicious?
The Drinking Hat 
gotta love marijuana
Way COOL!
Reblogged this on Eclectic Avenue ~ Latest Blog Posts =^..^=.
Ja love us!!!!
Wow, what a lot of hostility. Chill out, burn one, take a load off.
Everyone says pot is a gateway drug. No it isn’t. Very few drug addicts started out smoking pot. Most heavy drug users start first with alcohol. It is legal and convenient.
Addiction isn’t a result of drugs, it is a reaction of the user. Meaning — drugs don’t make addicts, it is the other way around, addicts crave drugs. It is like saying guns kill people. No they don’t. People kill people with guns.
People with addictive tenancies will use pot addictively. It is the personality trait that is harmful, not the substance itself. The consequences of using alcohol is far worse that pot if it could be scientifically quantified.
There are drugs that are physically addictive, most of them are refined through chemical means, or pharmacological means, but pot is not physically addictive.
I’ve spent five years of my life helping drug addicts get clean — I’m not talking out my ass. This is ground level.
To the original question in the post, I was a teenager in the 70’s. It was better and cheaper than booze. Not as crazy as LSD or mushrooms or mescaline. And now I’ve figured out how to grow it in a closet with compact fluorescent light bulbs and mirrors. And the only stress is that its foolishly illegal. Why is it the governments business what I do in my closet?
Thanks for putting it into perspective! All I can say is that I know many people who are extremely hard-working individuals that if they never told you they smoked weed you would never know. I believe alcohol is a much worse drug than pot…yet it is legal. Alcohol is not even regulated in any way….instead the gov’t “allows” people to drink and drive so they can make a profit. Its a joke!
And as for people saying once they legalize weed then what about the hardcore drugs…..in my opinion those drugs are more addictive and make people unable to think clearly…pot just relaxes you….watch Super High Me…in the beginning he takes a IQ test (after not smoking weed for 30 days) and scores less …it also shows that he does not have any withdrawals or even the “feeling” of must having the drug. It is a totally different “drug.”
Actually weed was legal more than it has been illegal…interesting huh? As well it is predicted that over 50 percent of adults smoke weed occasionally. So why not legalize it, tax it, create jobs, and get us out of this ridiculous debt!
Taxing weed wouldn’t get us near the profits that it would take to get the country out of debt, but it wouldn’t hurt. The only problem right now with marijuana becoming a cash crop for the United States is the fact that most other countries have it illegal too.
With that said I strongly support legalization. Most of the “criminals” that are persecuted because of marijuana are doing so to either help make enough money to get by, trying to relieve stress, or are trying to help others relieve stress, which generally doesn’t add up to having laws that stop this from occurring, particularly in a stressful and down economy, when people need as many cheap stress relieving options as possible.
This doesn’t even go into the many people who use the plant for creativity or for other personal growth reasons. The biggest myth of marijuana is that everyone uses it and lays down afterwards in an unproductive heap. Just like everything else, assumptions makes an ass out of you and me and like many other social issues in America, people should have the right to choose what is right or wrong for themselves.
I don’t smoke weed, but being from an island, I know plenty of people who do. So many people die every day from alcohol use and alcohol related incidents. Why isn’t alcohol classed as illegal? It’s all about the money. If more people were using and even growing their own weed, there’s be a huge drop in alcohol and cigarette sales.
Marijuana should become legal, the government could tax it and maybe do some damage to the deficit problem we have here in the U.S. Also I like the idea that canada had for helping people get jobs involved with the marajuana industry and that is what needs to be done in the U.S.
Never took drugs of any kind, the closest thing i get to drugs is my pain killer., LOL!
Delicious and rarer than a plane crash, deadly
All in all, nature knows her shit, and this baby comes outa the ground so…
Delicious
Great Post
Dawny 😉
“And how disappointed were you when the world didn’t become trippy colourful with rainbows shooting out everywhere?”
It was never suggested that weed would ever do this to begin with. Weed isn’t as potent as other psychedelic drugs BY FAR, unless you suffer from some kind of mental illness. Also, weed is MUCH more potent today than it ever was in the 60s, but still not as potent so as to create such hallucinations. Have you ever even smoked weed?
“I mean a pot head is usually crouched in the corner of their room waiting for their next fix”
Do you ACTUALLY know any pot heads? This doesn’t even come across as funny at all, because who even thinks of weed smokers in this way …except for you? Also, the bars in Toronto aren’t legally allowed to produce anything with a THC content, and most have been shut down/are regularly checked for that reason.
“sterile salt water injected into you 25 times”
The word you’re looking for is saline, and that would be placebo since it does nothing but hydrate you, and no one would be paid for that to begin with, unless you are part of a control group who is to receive a placebo. I just don’t understand HOW you are trying to be funny. Like, none of your jokes make any sense, and your grammar is ridiculous.
I think you should do some editing and more research before you try and write comedy pieces like this. I mean, good comedy isn’t just sharted out of your ass on a whim, especially if you lack the cleverness to make it happen that way.
Also, to these stupid-ass comments being made. All of you who are anti-marijuana should know that the only reason people who smoke pot want it legalized is because it causes LESS harm in almost EVERY WAY than the drugs that ARE legal, like alcohol and cigarettes. Therefore, it makes no sense that it is illegal in the first place. There is a huge stigma surrounding pot and pot smokers. In addition to this, one of the only reasons it isn’t being legalized is because the government doesn’t stand to gain as much money from it as they do with coffee, sugar, cigarettes and alcohol, and it would interrupt deals made with international drug cartels. You fucking, fucking retards.
I feel like I should explain the article to you, but then again the explanation is more complicated than the article so clearly you wouldn’t understand that either.
From the dumb ignorant horribly un-funny Sean Mac
That wasn’t even a witty reply. Your article doesn’t require an explanation in the least. It was very simple. And your reply to my comment was more a blatant display of your insecurity. You were making claims that were a)not true, and b) weren’t funny at all, and c)riddled with grammatical errors.
Colleagues of mine who have also read your article feel the same way, who are also [successful] comedians.
My grammar is bad i totally agree. I try to write in a way that it reads more like someone is speaking. I think insecurity and comedy are hand in hand when its your own work being displayed. I don’t know why you find that so unnatual. Your the first one to make a negative comment which wasn’t even constructive criticism, just general hate and anger, and really I’m totally fine with that. You make that comment most likely cause you are a struggling writer/comedian and your angry because people read my shit. I don’t really have a target audiance but I know comedians arn’t one of them. They are too hard to please and are either very criticle or some what jelous of the success of other peoples work, especially if they don’t like the work. Also this is a site where I can just write any random thing I want and put it up, no matter what little work i put into it. People read and enjoy it too. Crazy eh? Oh and guess what buddy, its a blog, a free blog where I can write what ever I want in my free time. Why would I put my gold work up for free?
This was fun. We should do this again sometime.
Sean Mac
If you don’t like the post, or disagree with the point, just say so. You’ve only let one person down here.
It’s also ironic that the angriest person to comment on this is also totally against legalization.
I am completely FOR legalization. Can you read? I was bitching about the people who are against it for no good reason.
“the only reason people who smoke pot want it legalized is because it causes LESS harm in almost EVERY WAY than the drugs that ARE legal, like alcohol and cigarettes. Therefore, it makes NO SENSE that it is illegal in the first place.”
I clearly said it makes no sense that it is illegal. How the hell is that “totally against legalization”? In addition, I ALSO said it’s less harmful than most legal drugs.
I said that the only real reason it isn’t legal is because the government are a bunch of greedy bastards who don’t stand to gain from its sales because of the underground control on the product.
I smoke a lot of weed, though perhaps it actually has had an effect on your mental processes.
hey,
love you guys, being italian-french-chinese in Singapore help me to forget about so-called real word, here it’s 3D paradise ahahaha but really you’re spirited and each time I read the blog I laugh a lot, life about that laughing, cause the end is so dramatic! Thanks ans gong xi fa cai (prosperity!) RmF
Stock up on Frito-Lay stocks. Marijuana will eventually be legal and more people will get the munchies. This will spike Frito-Lay stocks so buy now!
Yeah, I can’t really say anything that hasn’t been said either…..alcohol messes people up way worse than weed. And it would take some research, but I think instead of America pumping its kids full of legal speed, aka adderall and ritalin, some sort of natural marijuana pill could be used to settle them down….
First toke? 1957. One of those dazzling statistics about old farts.
hahaha love the photos 🙂
Thank you for this outstandingly intelligent and sensible perspective on the totally natural, naturally occurring plant, marijuhana (sp) – you didn’t add – providing it is taken either not at all (best) or very very conservatively prior to the age at which the body fully matures (between 21 and 23 for men, possibly very slightly younger for women) then it is an actively medicinal drug for a whole range of malaises: depression; anxiety; multiple sclerosis; etc etc
I smoke weed just about everyday. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It might be nice to legalize pot but the law is there for a reason. Pot is a nice drug, it can make the biggest asshole mellow out and become nice or it can make a nice person into an asshole (personal experience). I’m just saying that we should consider the average moron who drinks and drives, what is stopping them from smoking weed and then driving? I have had a contact high before and I was just so screwed up that I couldn’t function right. Letting people go out into the world who are stupid and will cause people to be killed is a bad consequence of legalizing pot. The stupid people always ruin things for the rest of us.
The fact that marijuana is illegal and people are still going to prison because of it is insanity!! It’s organic for Christ’s sake!!
Legalize it damnit!
Hello, almost left the page when i saw a picture of your freedom Sean.
Regardless of the health effects of marijuanna (even though there is much more positive research on it) it is up to the user to decide what goes in or out of their body. Only time I would argue against that is when the user is not of age or rational mentality.
Prohibiting popular demands creates a blackmarket. Blackmarket products Are very expensive, 2) questionable safety of product (different suppliers can grow product with dangerous material without your knowledge). 3) Can lead to other potentially dangerous products 4)endanger user physically.
If a product must be removed due to adverse effects, or “potentially” adverse effects then products such as advil,cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine, etc must also be removed.
—
Now for me coming into the topic, I first became acquainted with marijuanna at a friends house, I had no idea what it was but everybody seemed to enjoy taking it. My school knowledge that had been taught to me merely told me it was evil and dangerous. This created a curiosity which lead me to trying it a few times.
I personally don’t smoke it…but have no problem with those who do. Legalize it, tax it, and eliminate the costs associated with it’s illegality.
i love this argument, to me, weed is my anti-depressant, that’s right i said it! i even asked the ol doctor to prescribe but, but that didn’t go over very well….
i enjoy partaking in festivities, but if you can’t handle the appetizers, you shouldn’t go for the punch…
Merchandise Baby! I have to have an “Evil Weed” t-shirt! I wear extra fat…
side note: I just finished reading a bio of Steve McQueen, who smoked da weed just about ever day of his semi-adult life, while screwing a million women other than his wives. He used to beat up his first wife. Wish I hadn’t read the book, should have just stuck to the handful of great flicks he made, The Sand Pebbles especially.
I personally do not smoke it because I do not like anything that plays with my mind for it is out that far enough without the enhancement of drugs. But, when it comes to others doing drugs I would rather see them smoking weed than taking/doing the other things that they do. Great post to read TDH…
I absolutely favor legalization. I clicked over here after seeing that you “liked” my article on children’s books about two minutes after I posted it. Funny, in that article I barely refrained from quoting this line from A Picture for Harold’s Room:
Harold was taller than the highest mountain. “I am higher than anything!” he said.
Duuude! 🙂 One of those bits that makes the bedtime story more entertaining for the parent.
I say legalize it and I mean world wide.
In general I feel it is irrationale for any government to tell a person wether they can poison themselves which is what smoking and drinking really is. People desire an escape from reality because, quite frankly, its not always fun.
Pot heads aren’t criminals they are addicts. These people are sick (in the looses sense of the term). If the government does anything they should provide rehab centers and the like and/ or education about the substances that is honest and truthful. Other than that the government should stay out of peoples lives.
Also like said above it is better to legalize it to reduce black markets so that the government could get more tax money and regulate it so that people are actually getting what they paid for and not something more dangerous.
Interesting take on it…. A very close friend of mine has MS and he is legally able to grow it and smoke it. I think he should be able to continue to do so. As with anything there are always the ones who will exploit, cause problems, grow more then they are suppose to and sell to those who (here in Rhode Island) are not/un legally able to possess it. My thought is legalize it and make cigarettes illegal. Wouldn’t that be fun to watch unfold. There are no reported Marijuana deaths ever reported….ever and it is impossible to overdose on it. Here is a very interesting read on it you might find interesting: I meet Jack Herer and he is a well educated, informed individual that may shed some light where it may be dim. The book is informative weather you are Pro or Con. Educate yourselves first so you can be clear on all aspects.
Tasha
The Emperor Wears No Clothes is a book written by Jack Herer. Starting in 1973, Jack Herer took the advice of his friend “Captain” Ed Adair and began compiling tidbits of information about cannabis and its numerous uses.[1] After a dozen years of collecting and compiling historical data, Herer first published his work as The Emperor Wears No Clothes in 1985. The eleventh edition was published in November 2000, and the book continues to be cited in cannabis rescheduling and re-legalization efforts.
The book, backed by H.E.M.P. (America), Hanf Haus (Germany), Sensi Seeds/Hash, Marihuana & Hemp Museum, Amsterdam, (Netherlands), and T.H.C., the Texas Hemp Campaign (America), offers $50,000 to anyone who can disprove the claims made within. Quoting from the book’s back cover:
Might be an eye-opener or truly an eye-opener
-T
Hemp is another huge resource that we could be using. Hopefull it become legal in Canada then maybe the American government can see the finical worth of legalizing it.
Legalize it! Then tax it, distribute it, and watch the tourist bucks and agro dollars pour in. Echoes of “Reefer Madness” here, which if you haven’t seen, I totally recommend! I’m guessing you have, based on a lot of the argument you made, but just throwing it out there. Good documentary and very informative! It’s greatest point, far as I was concerned, was that medical testing conducting in the 60’s found only three consistent results of pot smoking: it made people happy, hungry and sleepy!
Speaking of which, you alluded to the whole “gateway drug” myth and you’re bang on. Having failed to find any harmful effects of the drug, at least ones that would warrant it being illegal, politicians turned to the gateway argument in order to scare people. Having failed to get people to buy into the whole “crazed pothead thing” the argument now ran that pot could lead to other drugs. Why? It’s a drug, and drugs are drugs!
If anything, statistical evidence has shown that people who sample pot are less likely to do hard drugs than those people who sample other drugs, and that includes alcohol. So personally, I can’t wait for the day when it’s legal to go to bar or break out the vaporizer here at home and puff away, knowing that I’m breaking no laws and subject to no stigma! Rock on!
“Legalize It, Don’t Criticize It” – Peter Tosh
Marijuana is a natural growing “weed” on this planet. The medicinal benefits of it are tremendous. “Hey God, why did you put marijuana to grow freely on earth?” God: “For you to use it, dummy.”
If marijuana were legalized, it would literally shut down the Mexican drug cartels. Well, until they moved to something a whole lot worse. Border violence would significantly decrease. The government could tax it and generate much needed revenue. People could find jobs. There would be less prison over crowding because the guy next door won’t go to prison for growing a couple pot plants.
So, why can’t this happen? Well, a big part of it is just plain sheer ignorance about marijuana and the other part (the bigger one) is MONEY. Just think of how much money the corrupt politicos would lose if it went legal. The Zetas pay them well.
There’s no legitimate reason to have marijuana illegal. There’s already a far deadlier legal drug on the market, see alcohol. The silly ‘where do you draw the line then’ argument has a simple answer- if the drug does not tend to cause otherwise unlikely death or injury to a bystander, then there’s no reason for it to be illegal. For the record I’ve never tried marijuana or had the desire to. From what I’ve heard of the usual effects meditation will suffice.
Although I agree with the financial aspect of it because we don’t have jobs here either, I am against it being just straight up legal. I am disabled and can get my license whenever I’m ready. I think that it should for medicinal purposes only. And that can bring in some money. Not as much as legalizing it all together, but something. It’s a shop around the corner from here. I smell Kush. They getting money 4 sure.
What kills more brain cells, alcohol or marijuana? The National Institute of Drug Abuse says “far deadlier than marijuana”.
The World Health Organization recently reported that “Alcohol causes nearly 4 percent of deaths worldwide, more than AIDS, tuberculosis or violence”. 2.5 Million people worldwide each year die from alcohol.
Annual deaths related to firearms in the United States: 29,000. Annual deaths related to prescription drugs: 32,000. Annual deaths related to alcohol: 85,000. Related to tobacco: 435,000. Marijuana? 0 – National Institute of Drug Abuse
Marijuana = 0.
The last time I was with someone who was driving high on weed, I was totally comfortable. The guy wouldn’t go over 30 mph and was looking every which way at intersections etc. In fact, instead of being uncomfortable, I was starting to get annoyed that the guy was being extra careful.
Although I support legalization 100%, I think most of the parnoia and cautiousness when driving stems from the fact that it is illegal.
Until it is legal and people become more relaxed and complacent we will not have a truely accurate experience with stoned drivers.
Like any chemical substance (and I include alcohol in this) marijuana has both beneficial and non beneficial effects. And it should be treated like any pharmaceutical drug, though a cheep one, as it has been tested on humans for a long time. It is an excellent pain killer in certain medical conditions. While abuse can lead to paranoiac feelings. But then abuse of any drug (including other “herbal” medication) can lead to adverse effects…including death.
Therefore, IMHO, in it self marijuana should not be feared and should be legalized all over the world but treated with respect as a medicine or at least in the same way as alcohol.
Legalize it. In my case it helps me relax. Also, when was the last time you heard of a pot head running over someone with his car and fleeing the scene? When was the last time you saw someone high getting violent?
The argument never gets old does it? A 2007 case-control study published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health reviewed 10-years of US auto-fatality data. Investigators found that US drivers with blood alcohol levels of 0.05% – a level well below the legal limit for intoxication – were three times as likely to have engaged in unsafe driving activities prior to a fatal crash as compared to individuals who tested positive for marijuana.
So why is marijuana illegal where as alcohol isn’t? One can see the skew of danger argument from this study alone, but the fact of the matter is, alcohol is easier to control and tax. As opposed to people growing weed in their home gardens, which would be very hard to regulate, and until that can be stopped, it will remain illegal.
Working for a pharmaceutical company, I can say that the FDA knows the risk of practically every drug, and there are medications with far greater dangers available over the counter than marijuana, but the harsh reality is, R&D is expensive, which makes drugs expensive, which generates mucho tax dollars, more than marijuana ever could. That is not to say that money wouldn’t be generated, the powers that be just couldn’t have the control they want and unfortunately they deem that as unacceptable.
I would think that at this point, any money the US could take in would be to it’s benefit, sadly though, we believe in greed more than logic.
Being a Canadian federal marijuana license holder, and a supporter of 2 compassion clubs, I can categorically state that marijuana has more positive benefits than any other drug on the market! That includes all pharmaceuticals, which is why it will never be legal. If legalization goes to cabinet, the pharmaceutical companies will fight tooth and nail, because they have the most to lose.
However, with the new regulations coming into effect possibly this year, things may get out of hand. The Canadian gov’t no longer wants “to be a drug dealer”, and will also retract all designated grower licenses, and disallow people from growing their own medication. Only sterilized factories, with gov’t approval, will be able to grow from then on, and the start-up cost to run one is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. They are making it too hard for people to get their medication, because the people are now allowed it. catch-22? Yes, most definitely. You can also say goodbye to these pot bars, as that will be outlawed as well through the second-hand smoke legislation, which will now include marijuana smoke.
Great post!
“Being a Canadian federal marijuana license holder, and a supporter of 2 compassion clubs,”…..this statement explains your opinion of marijuana….and your opinion ain’t mine.
Your welcome to your opinion, but it’s wrong… ornery or not, pot has more beneficial qualities than any 5 (FIVE) pharmaceutical drugs can claim, with NO (zero, zip, nadda) bad, permanent side effects. Read some medical journals, then start making knowledgeable comments!
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What happens when people wish to make heroin or cocaine or ecstasy legal? If we make marijuana legal because we think it is ok (research has proven it is not ok, it burns brain cells, which some of us can not afford), what do we tell the next generation who wants to make even harsher drugs legal? Do we draw a line in the sand? If so, where?
I’m not sure what research your referring to when you say its been proven to “burn” brain cells. Modern day research indicates cannabis has a variety of health benefits, much like drinking a glass of red wine. It does not destroy brain cells, diminish lung capacity, or cause cancer. (Sources: http://norml.org/library/health-reports/item/norml-s-marijuana-health-mythology#12
http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/10/10098412-smoking-pot-doesnt-hurt-lung-capacity-study-shows
http://www.webmd.com/lung-cancer/news/20060523/pot-smoking-not-linked-to-lung-cancer)
Marijuana has been the subject of a smear campaign by governments across the world. They spread their misinformation, much like war propaganda, and the general public goes along with it. Fighting a “war on drugs” has done nothing to curb general usage or addiction rates. I say its time we reexamine our drug laws, and change them to reflect the more compassionate society we are moving towards. Portugal and Switzerland both have very successful drug policies aimed at harm reduction, not punishment. That’s where I believe we should draw the line.
Please go read a few actual studies. Also you are practicing the slippery slope fallacy by using a strawman argument. That’s two logical fallacies in one.
I think the line can be drawn when one is a naturally grown product and the other is a synthetic, health-damaging drug. Anything against the constitution seems to have no effect on the law enforcement so what’s the big issue? Let people who agree to do it do and if you disagree, we don’t need to stick a gun to your head, but that’s what the state does.
You need more research to get more information. Lumping it into other drugs are not what is going to happen it is just a media, drug company scare tactic. Lear a little more. It won’t make you a drug user or side with the drug, just read a little more and learn the true statistics. Because marijuana naturally grown plant becomes legal it is not the gateway to anything else, it is just a ideology made up to scare people.
Find out who the information comes from. you will be surprised by
that
the thing is you just put it all in 1 category which shouldn’t be the case. Lot’s of people still laugh when I say alcohol or caffeine is a drug but they are, and would you put them in the same category as marijuana? probably not.
Alcohol actually does far more damage. Both to the body and the society as a whole.
Even if it were all put into one category, which is not reasonably or borne out by the science, history shows that expectation plays a huge role in how a user of “harder” drugs will function in society. in the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, for example, we had both the stereotypical opium dens (where hard core addicts would disappear for long term stays, and where other users would simply take shorter breaks) and we also had the most respected members of society (lawyers, doctors, judges, etc) using opium on a daily basis without any negative perception of them or their abilities.
The answer to your direct question is that we do not draw a line in the sand with prohibition and legal enforcement. We draw a line in the sand with compassion and treatment for those who cannot handle additions. The SAME help that we offer people addicted to cigarettes and alcohol. Both of which are far more addicting and damaging than marijuana.