Sam,
Nobody can be a "one-man band" when it comes to changing our society for the better. But, as individuals, we are either part of the problem or part of the solution.

The biggest out-point that I can see is people cannot approximate the correct estimation of effort needed to make any change. Thus, they start off with great intentions, but those intentions soon lower down into a failure due to not having and/or supplying the correct estimation of effort.

As for my take on tobacco or pot. Well, I used to use both of them. Gave up smoking after high school because it made it more difficult for me to sing.

Gave up pot in 1984 after learning that it adds to the very "stressful energies" that it seemingly released me from when I got high. I truly researched this for many months and then tried something else to release me from those heavy energies. That something else worked to get rid of them for good, whereas the pot only worked while I was high and I seemed to need more and more pot to get high as time went on. I guess it was because I was adding more and more "energy" to my negative space by even getting high. And so that is the very stuff from which addiction is made.

But, that doesn't mean that I feel no one has the right to choose what they want to do with their own body, mind and spirit. It's all about those choices and their resultant manifestations in the world.

The best way I know to ever overcome any suppression or negative energy is to flourish and prosper. How we accomplish that is the real task at hand. But, since we get that thing on which we place our attention, I'd much rather concentrate on the good rather than the bad. That's just me and I'm not preaching. Just stating my own successful actions.

Auntie Rant

"And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." Paul McCartney