True, provided you consider society and government to be freely interchangeable. In the case of marijuana, at the time it was prohibited it's use was not widespread, and it was not an issue of general concern among "society". The decision to prohibit it was done by government, and support for that decision was demanded of society. Should our society decide what kind of government we are to have, or should our government decide what kind of society we shall live in? Or should we just consider them one in the same so we never have to ask that question?
I think to a degree they are interchangable, at least when you apply politics to them both. Politics runs throughout our society and since government is an offshoot of civilized society, the two can be viewed as one in many many aspects. The alternative to an orderly, law abiding society and a freely elected government, would be chaos and anarchy. The latter I do not support, in any shape, manner or form.