Captain,

Yes, harmless, relatively. Drinking too much water is dangerous too. So if your example guy had been legally drunk out of his mind when he turned on the BBQ that started the fire it would have lessened the tragedy?

I didn't say pot is completely and entirely harmless. It's typically smoked, so it couldn't be entirely harmless. But compared to all the legal things we can take and do, yes, pot is incredibly harmless in the comparison. Pot doesn't cause lung cancer or heart disease, and while sometimes people do dumb things when stoned, people do dumb things for a lot of other reasons as well. To date there is no law against stupidity in the US.

The body of evidence on pot overwhelmingly indicates that the laws against it are way overkill compared to the effects of the product. More people get in car accidents from falling asleep at the wheel than from driving stoned, not that I'm recommending or condoning either.

Sg