I only knew one stoner who was given the “choice”. He went through processing with me and he thought for sure that he would either get out (he tried to fake an injury) or that he would be taken into the army and get a fluff job; like that was going to happen in 1969.
When they lined them all up, the stoner with the draftees, an army sergeant told them to count off by twos and then told all of the ones “welcome to the U.S. Army”; a moment later the Marine NCO who was processing us walked out and told the twos “Welcome to the U.S. Marine Corps scumbags”. The stoner was a number two and nearly collapsed from the shock. He did successfully make it through boot camp and I believe he won a stripe for his performance.
In Iowa, like S.D. and Nebraska, selling true ditchweed should be looked at as a drug adversion method. I had a number of friends in HS who tried that crap and became violently ill. Wild hemp is not the same as smokeable weed. Never tried any of it myself because I couldn’t stand smoking.
The worse ones were Johnson's 100 Thousand, they were a danger to themselves and the rest of the unit.