I can still remember Mr. Youngstrom, a high school teacher (maybe science, I forget), vehemently pleading with a class of 9th graders never to use marijuana. He didn't call it a gateway drug, that's a newish term I think, but that's what he meant. That would have been 66 years ago.
Now Vox proclaims the victory of pot. There's no federal legalization, but the trend is clear.