In most instances, yes. I don't agree with you that all drugs should be treated the same. If they were, then childrem could buy alcohol and tobacco as easily as aspirin. Would that make any sense?
Coke gives you a big head and seriously impairs judgment. I wouldn't want to take a taxi, much less fly on an airplane, where the pilot was high on cocaine, or even had a cocaine 'hangover'. The hangover from coke leads to serious, sometimes suidical, depression.
To throw all substances with a potential for abuse into one category (DRUGZ!!! OMG!!!) is to continue the hysteria about them. Pot, alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamines and opiate derivatives all have a unique pharmacology with unique psychological effects.
I suggest starting with Marijuana legalization. Our last three Presidents have all admitted to using it in their youth, with no apparent lingering effects. (Don't get me started on Barry Soetero. His lingering effects are from the books and teachers he learned from, NOT from smoking reefers, LOL.)
Do kids drink cough syrup and sniff glue to get high?
Which is why the argument I've heard made recently on air (not by you) that legalizing pot will reduce demand for other drugs falls flat. They DO do different things to you. Take you up, down, sideways. If you want to get a drunk buzz, 20 cups of high caffinated tea or coffee isn't going to get you there.
And there are those who insist that the drug smugglers will just "quit" if they can't smuggle pot. It's not like they'd increase importation of things like xanex, cocaine, or ecstasy.