Yea, they sold 3 grams of weed to an informant in college when they were 18 and got hit with a felony. Did 6 months, got expelled, couldn't get hired by anyone and became career criminals.
I personally know 3 productive citizens' lives ruined by the war on weed. And one life ended by it.
OTOH, I know at least two productive citizens who had similar convictions, and none whose lives where irretrievably ruined. One was in the military (I think, at least his use started while he was a cannon cocker in Vietnam). He worked his way back to Senior Engineer, for a defense company, with a security clearance, and eventually a TS-SCI clearance. (It was harder getting him read in to a specific program than getting the clearance). He was also smart enough to get out of that line of work before he got Clintonsized, as I did (I liked the work too much. :) )
The other is a used car salesman, same as before his conviction, who has raised a bunch of good kids, the youngest of which graduated from high school last year. The first of his kids graduated in about 1990 I think. He's also my first cousin, and always, always, maintained that he was railroaded and not guilty. But he didn't let that turn him bitter or to real crime. He supported his kids and his wives, including the one whose mother he never married, he helped that one's mother financially too, and would have married her if he could have. A hound dog, but an honorable one. His mother once called him a 60 year old hippie with a pony tail, but actually he's too old to have been a real hippy. :)
A little funny story goes with that. The family all decided "Not to tell Grandpa". Well sometime after my cousin got out of the *federal* pen, we had a family gathering. It was Easter of 1980 in fact. The men were all hanging around outside, including grandpa. Well, family was always a Big Deal to that cousin, so he went over see how Grandpa was doing (He was about 85 at that point, still living by himself, which he did until he was almost 90, and didn't get to meet his Maker and be reunited with Grandma until he was closer to 100 than to 99) The first words out of Grandpa's mouth were "So, XXXX, how was the federal pen". Couldn't fool Grandpa.
Grandpa did sometimes get us grandson's confused. But he'd been doing that for a long time before 1980. In fact he often called me by that same cousin's name. Both start with the same letter and both have one syllable, so I guess it's not so surprising.
But all that that said, I think I'd agree with your implied position on the War on (Some) Drugs, it causes more problems than it solves, and except for border interdiction, it's beyond the delegated powers of the federal government.
But weed or whatever, or even a conviction, is no excuse for robbery, armed or otherwise, nor being a pimp, nor any number of other "vocations" which too many figure are the "easy way".