Good question! I think in many cases yes it's handled way too hard. For example: smoking marijuana or using cbd oil can be used to get great pain relief and some people may be in pain for years and years without getting the right treatment (Tried many things before turning to smoking or cbd oil usage). These people deserve to have less pain too, and after sometimes years of high pain killer dosages, there body is used to them and they need more and more of these. Which is not good for their health either. I think in these cases it's much better of them to use these things for relief of pain. But when they do, they can be treated like criminals... instead of human beings...
Of course there are cases in which people do harm others using drugs, but my opinion is, that most people using the number 1 drug in the world, that is NOT illegal: Alcohol! are causing more problems than people that use drugs in some way. People that use drugs on a normal level (so no abuse or addicts) tend to be more loving to the people around them due to the effects of the drugs... while alcohol is causing serious fights or arguments very often while people have just a beer too much...