Yes, there certainly is such thing as breaking the law responsibly. Gandhi did it all the time. And recreational drugs include alcohol, which is legal.

You say "I'm sure that they had to 'endure quite a bit of unhappiness.'", but you wrote:

"The only reasons that I can think of that would people would take dangerous recreational drugs are as follows:

- They’ve never really had to endure unhappiness."

So your point may have been about justification, but what you said denied that others experience pain.

Your writing gets a lot less accurate when you're angry and judging other people.

Maybe you should look into why the harmless choices of others makes you so mad.