I’ll answer, but first, as someone who has experience with intoxicants:
A. It’s less of a gateway than alcohol. And it can function as a gateway out - I drink a whole lot less thanks to cannabis.

B. No hangover, and better judgment than alcohol. Alcohol is legal.

C. You may act goofy and giggly, but you’re far less likely to do stupid things on cannabis.

D. It’s great to help develop the artistic seed - or experience other people’s art - it can make certain films way better and often not the ones you think: horror films, Disney films (especially Sleeping Beauty), etc… - it t’s like eyeglasses for experiencing music and poetry as you can separate the different threads and feel the groove in ways that only artistic geniuses usually do - similar with food, the taste is out of this world.

E. It improves sex and foreplay.

F. Some elements of work become much easier while on cannabis, and this even includes working out how to design an Excel spreadsheet - aesthetically and functionally… just stay away from YouTube Shorts while high and trying to be productive.

G. It can help a lot with sleep, and not just in the come-down slot (depending on the cannabis product, there’s a period that lasts about 45 minutes to 2 hours where you’ll be able to go to sleep just by laying down and closing your eyes), but up to 3-5 days after. Sleep comes easier.

H. It can help with anxiety, if you’re the sort of person with constant thoughts, and sometimes side-thoughts spin out of control on the periphery of consciousness, leading you to anxiety, the cannabis can shut that down… small amounts of alcohol can work on that too. But cannabis, again, somehow manages to fix that problem for a long time after usage—at least 24 hours. A bit of whisky fixes anxiety only in the very short term. Both alcohol and cannabis are much less dangerous than anti-anxiety meds which have been known to lead to things like antisocial behaviour and self-harm—alcohol much less likely in small amounts (like less than 1-2 drinks); alcohol can make anti-social behaviour more likely if you think it’s funny, cannabis buries the desire for anti-social behaviour. Cannabis just make stupid things seem more funny.

I. Productivity again, it can make boring tasks seem much more interesting… the downside is that it can also make distractions seem much much more interesting. So try to avoid all distraction.

J. Cannabis works weird on memory, one of the positive side effects is that you’ll remember most of your dreams.

There are some downsides. I’ve known some people with psychological disorders who become dependent on cannabis, and it gets to the point where they use it as a crutch for a problem they really should sort out with long term therapy. On the bright side, aside from a brief fight that might last a couple of weeks, it’s usually fairly easy to convince people to tone it down on the cannabis or stop using altogether… not so with other drugs, including alcohol. If you have access to other things, weed will enhance their effects, this includes alcohol. Alcohol becomes much stronger when high, but usually it’s alcohol that will lead to mixing in cannabis, not being high on cannabis leading to drinking alcohol. Alcohol can drastically increase the side-effects of cannabis as well - for example, you could be partying for like 5 hours while high, but it’s actually only been about 20 minutes in real-world time.

Edibles can cause some issues as well since they take as much as two hours to fully kick in. And they can be very confusing because you could get a little bit high in 15-30 minutes, and that little bit high can stay relatively consistent for over an hour, then BOOM, you’re hit with a freight train and it won’t stop. The high on edibles also lasts way longer (in real time), too much and you’ll be high for over 24 hours. Nano-emulsions are a good substitute to edible oil and edibles, as they act quickly and peak out fast, you’re about 80% within 20
Minutes and start to come down within 2 hours (depending on how much you used) although non-intoxicant pleasant CBD effects will last a lot longer. CBD effects are like a pillow
Last downside, taking during a fever can make things rather unpleasant as it makes things feel a little delirious. Fever dreams be drastically intensified.

So, my answer is yes, absolutely. Make it legal in every western country. I think this “illegal but not enforced” bullshit is annoying.

Cannabis can also help asthma (of course not by smoking it)
https://allergyasthmanetwork.org/news/cannabis-marijuana-use-and-its-impact-on-asthma-and-allergies/

Yeah you should not really inhale smoke. My wife has bad lungs, asthma and every time someone is burning some garden waste or has a camp fire in the neighborhood she has to hide inside. At night it helps relax her lungs, makes it easier to sleep.

Another interesting side effect is that it improves my vision (as well as my wife's) and I can watch TV without my glasses. (It's not that big a difference, just enough that I can comfortably follow the subtitles instead of having to squint)

Some studies on glaucoma and marijuana have found that when marijuana is smoked or when a form of its active ingredient is taken as a pill or by injection, it does lower pressure in the eye, or intraocular pressure. However, it only lowers the pressure for a short period of time—about three or four hours.

Maybe lower pressure allows my lenses to relax more and thus better far sight (I'm near sighted)

It also reduces nausea which came in very handy during the pandemic, next to it reducing inflammation as well.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3165951/

It's a good alternative to NSAIDs, definitely better than taking Ketorolac and works more effective as well to reduce migraines. I've averted the onset of several migraines with Cannabis.

There are some negative side effects as well. If I sit still too much it can make my neck hurt more instead of less, enhancing the pain. Which is more a problem of not sitting right. And it can make me very thirsty. Nothing wrong with drinking more fluids but it's oh so tempting to go for the sugary drinks which only make you more thirsty!

That's cool that you think those are the benefits, but not everyone has the same experiences and agree with you that some need to seek medical help or therapy instead. 

I have a stoner friend who has the memory of a gold fish when he is high and is always on edge. My 2 year old remembers more then this bloke and makes it a pain in the arse to deal with when you have to repeat yourself 10 times.

Personally smoking anything, weed, smokes, vapes, smoke from smoking meat lol, I don't think is good for your lungs lol. However we all have our additions so cannot judge as each person has he right to do what they want with their body. Therefore a smart government would tax the shit out of it and try and keep the economy in black.

It's legal in Illinois.

People can get addicted to anything, and of course it's used for entertainment value

The best friend of a friend of mine was so addicted to Everquest that it ruined his life, lost his job, his wife, contact with family.

Anyway Cannabis isn't all that physically addictive, not as bad as alcohol, nicotine and coffee. But of course you can get mentally addicted to it like any habit and quitting can demand some will power.

There are some physical symptoms that can present themselves for a couple weeks.
https://americanaddictioncenters.org/withdrawal-timelines-treatments/weed-marijuana

When I stopped after using it daily for years (age 22 to 28, use it before since age 16) I just had trouble sleeping again. Which is a withdrawal symptom, yet I've had trouble sleeping since I was 6 years old... So can't really say I had any (new) symptoms. Yet I also had nothing to run away from, wasn't using it for depression or anything, just to relax in the evening and fall asleep at a decent hour. Which is where most of the benefits come from, it reduces stress, which is the main culprit for many physical problems.

However if your friend is always on edge when smoking weed, he probably shouldn't be using. That's the opposite effect :/ The 'stoners' I know are the most relaxed people around.

Anyway agreed on the taxation. Take the crime out of it, also means quality control, ingredients and potency listed and no added crap to make it physically addictive. Although that can still happen if big tabacco gets their hand on distribution. For now I'm glad it;s all regulated by the government.

This is what we should be worried about...
https://www.lung.org/research/sotc/by-the-numbers/8-things-industry-ecigs
https://macleans.ca/society/health/big-tobacco-has-become-big-vape-but-its-up-to-the-same-old-tricks/
https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/vaping-nicotine-addiction
I see more and more of those spent cartridges on the ground at skate parks and playgrounds.

And yeah, vaping weed and e-cigs, probably going hand in hand :/

Yet sniffing glue, huffing gas, people will always find a way to get out of their mind...

Definitely. It's certainly a better/less dangerous drug than alcohol. Granted it doesn't do much for me other than make me paranoid/tense more often than not. Which is the OPPOSITE of what I'm looking for.. I never got how people say it helps them unwind, relax or whatever. ALCOHOL definitely does that for me for weed is the polar opposite. My mind goes a million miles a minute on the stuff and it tends to amplify/enhance entertainment (music and movies mainly) and makes things generally funnier/more interesting but that's about all I use it for, and even that's rare these days. But still, it's a relatively harmless drug other than making you sit around and be lazy for countless hours. And I suppose one could get somewhat of a mental addiction (though not a physical one) through the dopamine effects, but again, alcohol is 100x worse as far as addiction goes, take it from me.

Now if we're talking hard drugs that are actually damaging and which one can OD on (cocaine, heroin, etc) then that's a much different story. 

When it comes to mental and physiological effects, I find that the different methods have different types of experiences. Perhaps the biggest element is the CBD ratio. I'm not sure CBD has any effect on its own, but when combined with THC it can transform the experience into something quite mellow. Although, some have said this is the indica vs sativa effect, and talk about the different terpenes - but I'm not an expert here, I normally don't pay attention to what I'm getting. These days I rarely smoke, and stick to edible oils and nanoemulsions - first, you don't have to broadcast what you're doing with smoke, and second, they're inexpensive, like 1/10th the price of smoking and/or edibles.

Another factor might be that I don't recall relaxing/unwinding on cannabis products when I was using them irregularly. I'm wondering if that's a factor?

The other thing is that for years now I've been using edible products almost exclusively.

I have never tried cannabis or any other drug except for small amounts of alcohol and caffeine.

Cannabis is objectively a safer drug than other legal alternatives for the user The state of being intoxicated by cannabis is also a lot safer for people around the user. It makes people slow and pacifistic instead of the case of alcohol that make (some) people bold and often aggressive.

I generally think anything that only have a direct effect on the one who chooses to use it should be legal. I will not use it anyway.

CBD helps mostly for pain relief without the mental high. You can also use CBD oils topically for targeted pain relief. It helps with arthritis for example. Indeed, higher CBD ratios make the experience more mellow, while pure THC, especially Sativa strains give you more of a mental high, great to watch movies on. CBD and indica strains are more body high, more for relaxation.

And yes, used irregularly you're more inclined to get that mental effect. Used regularly you get more used to the perception changes, less risk of getting paranoia and self doubt or rather more experienced in that it's just your mind being overly critical and thus more easily dismissed. The thing to remember is, it heightens your mental state as well. So if you're in a bad place mentally, it can enhance those feelings rather than numb them.

Cannabis can help with a lot of things, but not depression. XTC helped me out of my depression, but that therapeutic drug has been demonized as well and is way to easy to mix with more dangerous addictive substances instead of getting pure MDMA. Stay away from that, can be deadly if used incorrectly. (Used correctly it has good properties https://www.psychiatrist.com/news/legalizing-mdma-for-ptsd-treatment-phase-3-clinical-trial-results/ )
I got lucky to have a friend with access to a source of pure MDMA. (We actually researched how to make it ourselves, our Breaking Bad days lol) The stuff that gets sold in clubs is often cut with Speed or worse :/
https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dont-panic-but-theres-probably-meth-in-your-ecstasy-and-de-wormer-in-your-cocaine-7145964
Which is also a good reminder to get your Cannabis in dried leaf form unless you know and trust the source.

Case in point…this whole reply was written while he was high AF and it’s beautiful!