Sure, there are benign habits, like caffeine which is arguably beneficial even though it forms a physical dependency. There are also a lot of very harmful habits which are based around "addictive" substances. Personally I had to delete my Reddit account. I started using Reddit as a crutch for boredom and browsing became a default activity for me, something that sucked up every spare moment even if I wasn't actually enjoying it. That was monumentally self-destructive in exactly the same way that people describe their experiences with "addictive" substances. Even now I consciously limit my use of this site. I think that addiction is a purely psychological phenomenon, distinct from (though often paired with) the physical process of dependency and withdrawal. I might even go as far as to say that addiction is a symptom of larger problems, rather than a problem in itself. Anyway, cannabis does not form a dependency any stronger than caffeine, so in that regard I would argue it is even safer than alcohol. As for becoming addicted to cannabis, I don't think that any particular substance is more or less "addictive" than any other. Just my two cents.

Sure, but does it justify its place on Schedule 1? Hardly. As a whole alcohol does far more damage to society and yet it is very lightly regulated.

Maybe Schedule 4 or 5 might be more appropriate? i.e Xanax, Tramadol, less than 200mg codeine, etc.

By definition addiction has a harmful effect on the user.

> We should be a bit more careful in casually classifying marijuana as benign on grounds that is not as bad as heroin.

Yes, definitely. I'm strongly in favour of legalisation, but I recognise that for some people cannabis will be harmful.

By that logic sugar should be highly illegal. Obesity kills orders of magnitude more people than heroin.

Per gram (or per serve) of product, I very much doubt it.

But perhaps per dollar...