I have experience working in harm reduction drug treatment, and I can at least confirm from my own experience how useful cannabis is in stepping a person down from more harmful substances, whether by entirely substituting it, using it with something else to use less of the "something else", or mixing up their use to put some distance between uses of a more harmful substance. Sure they're still using drugs, but the associated criminality, risk of death or harm, and general obnoxiousness is much lessened.

I'm also in a state that can't seem to fund their social service and health programs despite it actually saving taxpayers money in both the short and long term. They're more than happy to increase gambling to half-assed increase revenue, but aghast at the idea of someone smoking some reefer somewhere.