Recreation is essential to the quality of life; therefore has value
Recreational drug use proves less harmful than commonly interpreted or perceived.
Recreation--the act of stimulating one's conscious for pleasure--is an essential component to health. We, as human beings, partake in numerous activities and events for intrinsic and/or instrumental ends. That is to say that recreational entertainment in and of itself has value and, furthermore, that value may be instrumented for a particular end.
"Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness. We form friendships so that we can feel certain emotions, like love, and avoid others, like loneliness. We eat specific foods to enjoy their fleeting presence on our tongues. We read for the pleasure of thinking another person’s thoughts. Every waking moment—and even in our dreams—we struggle to direct the flow of sensation, emotion, and cognition toward states of consciousness that we value.
Drugs are another means toward this end."
-- Sam Harris.