Here is the 1st part

https://monkeywarrior.com/detail/16039/

As always, thank you very, very much!

If I understood correctly, your disciple had a marijuana addiction. In the place where he lives, cultivating (and presumably using) marijuana is legal. So he began cultivating it himself, and this reduced his addiction by about 75%.

Did I understand that properly?

HpS - That is, agtSP, how I understood his experience as he described and we observed from our position. Also, see similar things with people in similar situations.

At the same time, it seems that the jīva has a natural attraction toward the All-attractive Person, Kṛṣṇa, who is very pleasant, and His association/service fills the jīva with an abundant bliss and fulfillment. Usually, today, Krsna is most practically approached and served by chanting Hare Krsna. When that attraction is not consciously engaged, the same seeking tendency expresses itself through other activities, sometimes in distorted ways.

HpS - Yes. Although He and His girlfriends sometime bite each other, no?

Regarding the association, I am not sure I fully understand your point. My current thought is that chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and doing kīrtana is always beneficial, but association with people who use intoxicants may also have its own influence. 

HpS - I see the danger that you are suggesting, thank you. In this case it seems that we are looking at associating with other addicts in a secular environment where marijuana addiction is being looked at from a progressive therapeutic platform rather from a secret society that is glorifying it as some kind of highly elevated state of existence.

"We are sick, lets surrender to the addiction we cannot control, but try to learn from the bad results we see".

x

"Pot is great. It is the doorway to higher consciousness. It gives us artistic abilities."

... If we are allowed to associate, see mirrors of ourselves in other addicts, who want to be cured while chanting Hare Krsna, then it can be one step up, no?

Of course, as your comments point out it can just be a chance to continue our addiction with more ease. Like following Vyasadeva's compromise in the other puranas becomes a chance to continue your addiction rather than a chance offered to advance.

O.K.??

Thank you so much.

Your servant, Namacarya Das