Back in my Navy junior officer days we got a lecture from a cynical old captain about to retire. He said he would much rather have one of his sailors use marijuana than alcohol. Why? Because with marijuana, the sailor would “pop positive” on a drug test and be discharged. With alcohol, even if the sailor showed up at work drunk, the policy was to send them to rehab and give them another chance. Or two. Or three. The captain acknowledged that sailors who didn’t know they might have an addiction problem were helped, but he’d also seen too many people game the system long after they should have been discharged. When asked by one of the audience about the fairness of throwing people out of the Navy after one marijuana use, the captain pointed out that sailors were told repeatedly that illegal drugs were a discharge offense; that drugs test would occur frequently and at random; and that even possession of illegal drugs was a discharge offense. Basically, if a sailor was still using at that point, they either were addicted or stupid—either way, the Navy didn’t have the resources to fix them. In part (the captain felt) because the Navy devoted so much time and effort to fruitless efforts to help alcoholics. “But we have no choice, because alcohol is legal,” said the captain, not with a happy face.