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".
Often they are not even real dealers or know anyone higher up so they have nobody to give up. Just college kids selling a bit of their own to a 'friend'. 3 of the people I know never sold to anyone except for the time they were set-up. The police use alumni as undercovers to go as a friend of a 'friend' and observe buys.
Right after they are busted, the police and papers in town label them as 'drug dealers' as if they are already convicted. The original article stays even if they are found not-guilty. If a company searches their name on google, it's the 1st article that comes up.
The police make the reports sound like the sale was directly to an undercover by a big-time dealer so the papers lap it up. What they do is get a 'friend' to buy with the police cash and then hand the drugs to the undercover. I've seen a controlled sale happen and the police report for it was 100% BS. I was so angry about how much BS was in it that I bailed the kid out.
He was supposed to start a six-figure job with an oil company the next month but they set him up a week before graduation. The only testimony that mattered was the cop's.
Here's the kicker: The police even put a false statement in the report so I looked like a druggie to the judge. I almost lost it when they were using that to discredit me so I called the cop a liar and demanded to be drug tested. Of course the judge didn't give two sh*** and that false statement is still attributed to me.
The police do more lying and double-crossing than these 'dealers' ever did. They even turn on their own informants to get a conviction. Of course the police lie only 'for the children'.