hey. i'd like to share my experience. i'm aware that others have different experiences, and that is fine and i respect that, but i'm still going to share my own experience.

in my experience pot has been extremely useful to me in my recovery. i think that different drugs affect different people differently. in my personal experience i have found benzo's like valium to be more detrimental to me with respect a pattern of tolerance and withdrawal than i have found pot to be. i find it ironic that benzo's are legal on a doctors prescription when pot is less addictive, has less negative withdrawal problems associated etc etc.

i find pot to be a useful mild seditive when my anxiety was getting out of hand. to be used prn rather than daily to be sure. or very small ammounts in the evening rather than benzo's for sleep (sleeping medications tend to be very addictive and to have nasty withdrawals that i personally never found to be the case with pot).

i have had times in my life when i used pot too much. to escape basically. one could indeed exchange one drug to numb the pain (ie alchohol) with another drug to numb the pain (ie benzo's or pot). or... one can use responsibly.

i think that part of it has to do with how one uses it... and another part of it has to do with how it affects ones body. the latter can influence the former... some drugs seem to 'click' in some way so you just want more and more and more of them. those ones are probably best avoided imo.

like... some people find with opiates. personally i don't find that with opiates and hence i am okay to use them very occasionally (for example four times per year) without experiencing cravings for more. amphetamines, on the other hand are a little 'too good' my body thinks and hence i need to be very careful indeed about recreational use as i do indeed experience intense cravings as a result of recreational use (though i have learned to manage these).

regarding the health issues...
vapourisers are worth the price (you can get good ones off the internet). they purify the THC and the nasties are filtered out completely.
you can of course eat it as well... and bongs (filtering it through water) helps purify it some as well.
regarding the illegality...
helpful to remember that there are places in the world in which it is not illegal (and also places where it is not considered a criminal offence). maybe... those places have a population which responds better to the drug? ;-)

or maybe... other countries don't have a cotton industry to defend from a hemp industry... and other countries aren't so governed by religious fundamentalist concerns...

;-)