Actually it's the same thing with cocaine. If you abuse it then that's on you. Believe it or not there are actually plenty of responsible coke users as well. A buddy of mine makes 3 thousand dollars a month doing work in the oil fields, and yet he occasionally does a little coke, not on a daily basis but atleast once a month when he's celebrating. I wouldn't consider that much of an addiction an it doesn't affect his performance given how little he does it. Hell it would probably boost his performance given his line of work. However, he never uses when he's out there. Only when he's got his two weeks off.

Many people use responsibly. That's why you never hear about them, because they don't get caught. You only hear about the irresponsible dumbasses. As for the whole defense argument let me give you some real facts: 1. No, it's not physically addicting which means your body won't ever truly depend on it (like some harder drugs) but it can be psychologically addicting because some people just have addictive personalities, they can't do anything that feels good without becoming hooked on it. 2. Marijauna will never kill you, but making poor choices while under its influence might. Same with any mind altering substance. 3. The drug is never truly the problem in terms of addiction, it's the user who is truly the root of the problem. 4. Not everyone should smoke weed as it is not 100% safe for all, some people have predispositions to certain mental illnesses that can be exacerbated by any type of drug use. These people are better off staying 100% sober. I am one of these people, sadly I have dabbled with many drugs and have faced the consequences for it, both mentally and legally. 5. Marijauna has minimal harmful effects, which means that it's relatively harmless when compared to all other substances. However any form of smoke inhalation can be detrimental to your lungs. Any sort of mind altercation can be detrimental to your brain if your brain chemistry isn't perfect (and for most people, it's not.) however marijauna has shown to have minimal long term effects and even those effects are only caused by chronic use. These conditions are depression, anxiety, short term memory loss, and certain brain growth issues if one uses at a very early Age 6. The biggest problem with marijauna is the strain that its prohibition puts in the tax payers and law enforcement. The reason I bring your age into this is because kids in high school have no business doing this stuff, I'm being a little hypocritical here as I did many drugs in high school, however I wish I hadn't. I got myself in plenty of trouble because of my curiosity. I also caused some damage to mind that at the time was still developing. When you're that young any kind of drug use can get you in all sorts of trouble with school, your parents and even law enforcement. When you're an adult like me it's a lot easier to get away with it because most adults have their own place and don't have to worry about getting caught (still have to worry about the Law but not nearly as much if you keep it in your own home).

You say you don't think it's completely about character flaws but then contradict yourself by saying it's because these people feel that they need to escape reality, which is a character flaw. That means they have some serious psychological issues that they are trying to escape and ignoring that is a character flaw. It means you would rather ignore a problem and cover it up rather then deal with it. Yes the plant can cloud your judgment but if you allow that to happen then you are still at fault. The plant does nothing more than exist. It's the person that picks it up, smokes it and brings those effects upon themselves. If you smoke, and it makes you consider making bad decisions then you shouldn't smoke. That's just irresponsible. Let me give you a little insight. About a year ago, two men broke into my apartment, they were high in Xanax and cocaine. They were not thinking rationally because they were high but they put themselves into that mental state by doing the drugs. To make a long story short, I killed two men that night. One was my friend who they forced to kick my bedroom door open (me not knowing it was my friend, fired the second I heard the door break. My friend was hit square in the chest with a 12 gauge. All because my roommate had told the intruders that I had a gun and they didn't want to be the ones to kick my door in, out of fear. They forced my friend, who had came over to help once he realized we were being robbed, into a position that got him killed.) immediately after my friend was hit one of the intruders opened fire in me with a pistol, he fired 3 shots but they missed. I shot him 3 times with that shotgun. He was gored in a way that I can't ever forget. I blew half of his face off. I gunned him down for not only breaking into my place but for putting my friend in that position. He died before the police even got there. Thankfully the police eventually caught the other intruder, who had fled during the shooting. He was arrested and is being tried for two counts of capital murder. Because he was committing a felony that resulted in two homicides. The investigators were able to prove that I did not intentionally shoot my friend so I was not convicted since it is legal to shoot and kill any intruders under my states castle laws. Now for the moral of the story since you're probably wondering why I'm sharing this with you, the intruders were high, unreasonably high to the point were they just broke into a random apartment in hopes of finding anything of value. The guy who was charged tried to argue that because they were so intoxicated he didn't realize that he was doing anything wrong. He didn't realize what he was doing at all. Guess what the judge said to that? Guilty. On all counts. Because being under the influence is never an excuse for making poor decisions. You shouldn't have let yourself get to the point where you aren't capable of making rational decisions, therefor, he was still 100% responsible for his actions. The prosecution didn't blame the drugs he was on. They blamed him for doing the drugs and then making a terrible decision. When you play with fire, it will burn you. It's not the fires fault that it burned you. It's in its nature to be so hot. It's your fault for playing with the fire when you know what it's capable of doing. That's my point here.