Hey hey, I never said weed is as bad as hard drugs. But weed is still addictive. and that's not only because people "like it" -- it is not like a warm shower or a cup of tea- it MAKES YOU VERY HIGH!
To be honest, I'd compare strong kush to opium in terms of strength. When I was younger [14-16], way before I got into hard drugs, when I didn't have weed I'd dip into the tylenol 3 stash left over from operations, and it was NOT strong enough to satisfy [~150 mg]. Weed may be down the list of addictive psychoactive drugs, but it's still addictive. That's all I'm saying. OF course most people kind of instinctively realize that potheads are drug abusers like any other; it's just more tolerated, because, as Myco-something said [lol], it doesn't ruin your life automatically...
like a guy in high school once told me, criticizing my pot habit -- and I, of course, thought "what a dork... just shattap" -- "you can't get a high from nothing. when pot makes you that damn high, to satisfy you, it is doing something to your brain." A drug that provides endless pleasure at seemingly no cost, sounds too good to be true...
Then someone might say, well we have ancient cannabinoid receptors from prehistoric times... but if that is the case, it was certainly not weed as strong as today's, smoked with the same frequency and hedonistic enterprise. Also, in ancient Greek and Roman medical documents they do criticize the hash and opium fiends of the East.
I'm saying that weed is not in some magical category of its own. it is still a fun drug that gets you high--at a cost of some kind to your general equilibrium. hell, I wish I had some now -- cuz i'm a fiend and everyone knows it!
*** all that said, I do think that occasional use is life-enhancing. It stimulates creativity, communication, sensitivity, etc. But once you get into like week 2 or 3 of daily use, it loses these life-enhancing properties and becomes a numbing agent, like narcotics... speaking of which -- weed can really replace narcotics -- known as "marijuana maintenance", which it has been used for since at least the 1800s, to replace morphine addiction. But in my experience this only works for a few months. The problem is you need more and more weed to delay the cravings, then once you run out, you feel a tidal wave of cravings for opiates