Richie and Penn, both realize I am sure, that there are types of people with addictive disorders. The addiction may be drugs, alcohol, pills, or other things. In the case of pain pills, it probably started with an accident for which pain pills were prescribed and the addictive disorder just keeps craving them after a while. Same way with marijuana or other drugs. Same thing goes for alcohol or cigarettes.

Not all people who use marijuana will be drug addicts just as not all who drink alcohol are alcoholics. You can say that it is a stepping stone but there are the stepping stones of beer, a sleeping pill, a pain pill for an injury, or a cigarette. Are you going to do away with all of those things? No, they are all legal and regulated.

Marijuana needed for many thousands of people on chemo for both nausea control and pain control of cancer.

There is the question of non-medical use of marijuana. If regulated, it would not be more harmful than alcohol or cigarettes.