Legalise Cannabis

This is something that is currently being debated in Ireland and a lot of my friends have been inviting me to protests about it. Frankly I don't want to be involved, I'm not against cannabis, I'm well aware that safe cannabis has dozens of useful and even helpful properties and that for many people it can have a positive effect on their lives. Unfortunately I am certain that the vast majority of people interested in legalising cannabis just like the idea of not getting in trouble for smoking weed.
I get that people enjoy it, that it can be fun. But drinking can be fun too and there's a reason there's an age limit, cocaine probably can be fun too but we don't want everyone taking that either. Like alcohol, while not the most harmful substance to the human body, weed can be problematic in the wrong hands, the wrong amounts, the wrong circumstances.
Someone close to me got into weed when he was 15 and ended up fucking up his exams and getting expelled from school and a mate of his died in circumstances with weed. I have another mate who smokes weed nearly every day to help him relax after work, or de-stress from being with his family.
Despite being someone who sometimes wishes I could just take something to make me relax, or to help me be happy, I don't believe that any substance, especially a legal one, is going to help those feelings. Because they don't fix the problem, they just help you forget about it.
If I thought that people were protesting for something genuine, something that would be positive for society, I would be out there marching too. But frankly, when my friends, or guys I'm dating, are high or stoned, they really aren't as fun, or nice, or interesting to be around as they normally are. I guess I like things real, even if the real is less pleasant to deal with sometimes. At the end of the day, I feel like weed isn't a life experience I should have, life is something I want to experience, and weed changes the real world, the real way you see thing and feel things.
When I meet one person my age who wants to legalise cannabis for a real reason, a good reason I'll think about marching. Til then, I'll stick to my guns!