From where will anyone pick up some sort of standard of behavior that can help steer them in life?
Again -- I'm not sure legislation is the very best place for the rule, but if the government shouts out: "Pot's OK!!" you will certainly have more people use the stuff. Then you've gone from government trying to legislate morality over to government basically announcing that there's no real harm in it.
Not sure that's helping our society avoid the slope toward the abyss.
I am not sure that our society’s slide towrd the abyss can be stopped.
What government shouts is lies. Whatever it is shouting at any given time is a lie, so it should be shunned all the time.
I can only answer your question as to where a person finds some sort of standard of behavior to hel steer them in life by saying where I found my answer.
When battling my demon of addiction, which should have killed me outright and most certainly wreaked havoc in my life, I asked God on a very dark day to give me the strength to walk away from this hell, and He did.
It took more strength than I ever imagined even existed, and very sadly I have seen it in few others. I fought this battle alone but with His help, and I am still here today and sober and enjoying viewing this world from behind clear eyes.
This is why I know that this is a battle that some of us have to fight in this world. For whatever reason it is a task that some are burdened with. Perhaps it is a test, but what I learned over many years of suffering is that only the souls that are tormented by that particular demon are the souls capable of defetaing that particular demon.
And the lessons learned from that struggle are precious and rare wisdom.
It is still OK to smoke and drink and eat fatty foods and sit around doing little or no exercise.
However, the government has made it quite clear that they believe that smoking is always bad, drinking in excess is bad, eating too much fat or doing too little exercise is bad.
They are not saying "Smoking and drinking and fat and lethargy are OK!!"
Legalizing marijuana is not the same as the government advocating its use. If it turns out that the marijuana sold today is much more potent than "our grandfather's marijuana" and that it is indeed dangerous then it can be properly regulated by the FDA or the Ag Dept.