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Part of the reason this topic is so clouded and confused has to do with the history of how pot was made to be illegal.
Here's a brief synopsis. It was 1929 and there was a lot of corruption (as there is in all government) in the Bureau of Prohibition. Harry J. Anslinger was appointed as Commissioner to a newly created Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN). He needed a campaign that would take the scrutiny off of the government, his agency and himself.
He held a conference on the limitation of Marijuana where he invited 42 experts from around the nation to ask them what they knew about it. Only one person out of the 42 fit the viewpoint of Anslinger, but that was all it took to help him have a small amount of credibility in his campaign of lies.
Over the next few years he convinced the american public, with no scientific consensus (only his lone "expert") that marijuana causes "insanity, criminal acts and death."
Later his story changed to "Marijuana is the gateway drug" because too many people were using the statement that the drug caused insanity as a defense in court for murders. But the perception remains.
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