drugs and deviance

The activity we did in class today where we were given a page about a certain drug and had to rate it if we thought it was legal or illegal on a scale of 1 to 4 really showed an unbiased opinion the different groups had about that certain type of drug. Legal drugs like alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine most times got ratings of 3 or 4, when in our society those are the least regulated kinds of drugs, whereas marijuana got ratings of 1 or 2 and that is a drug that is punished harshly by the law if you are caught in possession of it. If I would of known what the drugs were before rating them, I would have given alcohol a 1, caffeine a 1, nicotine a 1, and marijuana a 3 or 4. The drugs I deem socially acceptable to use that I don't think are deviant come from society and the laws. Since marijuana is illegal and harshly punished I've always had a more negative view of it than when I did for the in-class activity. My view of marijuana is changing just because I think I'm becoming more aware of it. Four years ago as a freshman if I found out someone smoked weed they would have a social stigma to me, and now as a senior I see the prevalence, and don't see it as super deviant, but still illegal.