«‘Stigma’, as per Erving Goffman’s influential and important analysis (albeit with some limitations to his discussion),4 refers to a process of ‘social spoiling’, whereby an individual’s status comes
to be seen as tarnished and spoilt . Stigma is often based on assumption, preconception, and generalisation . In terms of drug use, stigma and criminalisation operate together: stigma (i .e . the social spoiling of people who use drugs) is used to discourage drug use, and criminalisation is justified by stigmatising drugs and people who use them .5
Stigmatisation drives frequent prejudiced and biased treatment of people who use drugs . This discrimination has corresponding impacts on health and welfare . Stigma, and the discrimination it results in, are what drive the gross violations of the human rights of people who use drugs, and also result in these violations going for the most part unchallenged»

https://www.unodc.org/documents/unga..._Drugs-Web.pdf

Det er fler og fler artikler som argumenterer godt for det faktum at stigmatiseringen i seg selv er skadelig. Joda, thc er psykoaktivt, men det er ikke synonymt med paranoia. Det er en spesifikk artikkel jeg har lett etter, som jeg ikke finner atm, (så ikke ta dette for god fisk, skal fortsette å lete litt) men den hevder at i land der cannabis er ulovlig ser man også fler psykologiske problemer som følge av dette, som kan tyde på det at «å være kriminell» er mer skadelig enn det å faktisk bruke stoffer.