My position is that marijuana use by adults should be decriminalized. Patients should have the option of legal medical marijuana. Laws regarding marijuana should be modeled on alcohol laws. Many people will accept that marijuana is safer than either tobacco or alcohol, and that it is illogical for marijuana to be treated so much more harshly than alcohol is. Their argument often goes on, though, to say that we have enough problems with alcohol and tobacco and do not need to add to our problems by decriminalizing marijuana.
Different people have different body chemistry and prefer different drugs.
And many people would prefer to have the safer alternative. No one is advocating marijuana use by children. Just as some young people have always obtained alcohol, though, some will obtain marijuana. If there were a causal basis for the gateway theory, though, it might be that in obtaining marijuana today people often come in contact with criminal black markets also selling hard drugs. I do not claim that marijuana is completely harmless.