Schedule 3 is a lower standard for researchers and prescribers but it does not fundamentally change the legal status of recreational, self-elected use. Other class 3 drugs include e.g., ketamine, a weird amphetamine (benzphetamine), and some drugs with the opioid codeine. None of these are legalized for recreational use. And my impression is that sentencing guidelines for marijuana just specify it by name rather than relying on its former schedule 1 status. It's a move in the right direction, but only barely.

The grandparent commenter was trying to blame current societal ills on the legality of marijuana and the legal availability to children, both of which are plainly incorrect, so any future legality cannot have had any bearing due to the causal nature of the universe. And even if it becomes legal someday, all current precedents involve treating marijuna like cigarettes as far as age restrictions go.

> The grandparent commenter was trying to blame current societal ills on the legality of marijuana and the legal availability to children

I'm blaming marijuana legalization for young people smoking marijuana, when they wouldn't smoke cigarettes. The fact that marijuana isn't legal in all states, or is illegal at the federal level, is immaterial to my point. In the places where my family and I live (D.C. and Oregon), marijuana has been legal for a decade. It was made legal in Oregon in 2015, after being decriminalized in 1973. Dispensaries are all over the place. In D.C. it's been legal to grew, possess, and barter since 2015.

The fact that it's illegal under federal law has no effect on people's use of it, because the feds do not bother to enforce that law on individuals. My neighborhood in downtown D.C. reeked of pot smoke way back in 2016.

> I'm blaming marijuana legalization for young people smoking marijuana, when they wouldn't smoke cigarettes.

Young people who would never smoke cigarettes smoking marijuana was already happening the 2000s, long before any state approached legalization.

I'd be interested to see actual data on that. For example, a Canadian study done after a year of legalization found that more youths tried marijuana, but that they were trying it later than average and the overall usage of cannabis among youth remained the same. Interestingly, there was also an increase to the perception of harm from using cannabis among the youth surveyed.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2022.09.003