My experience with druggies has been the rather different.. First of all, every single one of the people I know who does drugs started out smoking cigarettes, and still do.
Secondly, by far the most violent, annoying burdens to society are the ones I know who smoke pot. They get high and drive around in the wrong lane at twice the speed limit, regularly get in fights, fail most subjects at school or university because they never show up and never study or do work, and basically will never contribute anything except danger and crime to society.
The hard druggies I know have loads of piercings, ugly hair and weird clothes. They hang around in small groups where they talk about nothing and just sit around being high and sad. They manage to do a bit of work and pass most subjects. I have never seen them do anything particularly dangerous to anyone else than themselves.
I do hate cigarettes and hard drugs, but I do not think pot is somehow OK. 90% of the people I know who regularly smoke it are complete failures at life who will most likely spend their entire life on welfare or in and out of prison for petty crimes.
The people I know who use hard drugs will surely die within 10-15 years, making their negative impact on other people even smaller. All they are doing is messing up their own life.
I don't see how pot is better than cigarettes. It does the same basic damage to your lungs, blood cells, heart and so on while actually being somewhat worse because it is rarely smoked through a filter. Unlike cigarettes it has a powerful drugging effect which not only makes you stupid but also makes you lazy and careless, resulting in a failed education and things like car accidents.
Seb