A lot of drugs out there, crack, heroin, cocaine, heck, even MDMA will do damage eventually if you use it in large enough doses. For that matter, legal drugs like smoked cigarettes and alcohol have long time negative consequences with regular use.

I agree with the parent, this whole desire to vilify the monster-du-jour sometimes gets out of the hand, with the MSM frequently playing the willing companion to whatever government propaganda of the day is in vogue.

Can these drugs do damage if abused? Yes. So teach people not to abuse them, and, those who do, or become addicted, have medical issues that should be treated as such.

I'm willing to wager that not only would drug abuse come down, as light was shone on addicts rather than making them hide in the dark, but we'd also see reduced prison populations, and entirely eliminate a major source of income to criminal gangs.

This is probably the 1 Billionth+ time someone has made this argument on a forum though, so I don't hold out to much hope until the winds of sanity for, whatever strange reason they do, blow in that particular direction.