Correction, there is almost no stimulants and things people use in order to escape that have some real benefits.
I remember I had a very quick episode with work as a waiter. Basically, when I was 19 I had an accident on my way to work (yeah that first job I mentioned above) . I was going to the bus stop and my left lung collapsed out of nowhere. I didn't smoke cigarettes, didn't smoke weed or something, it just happened on itself. Later on I found out that I was not the only one with this type of injury at such young age. I was diagnosed with pneumothorax and within two months from that situation (having undergone surgery and rehabilitation at home) I was sent to rehabilitation center - or if this is a better word here - sanitarium (although I'm not sure whether this second term applies to mental health issues only). I felt kinda strange there because I was one of the youngest people there as in my country this type of facilities are visited mostly by elder people or people with serious chronic diseases. When I was there I met a guy who had been a bartender and a waiter for most of his career. He offered me a job as a waiter at the wedding. We frequently discussed a lot of things and one of them were stimulants of any kind. Back then I had aversion towards any kind of stimulants and I asked him what was the point of paying for something that either gives you a temporary pleasure/relief or just destroy you when at the end of the day it just leaves your body with excrements. And he responded that every kind of substance of this kind worked this way. And come to think about it it's true. Alcohol, narcotics (including weed, no matter whether you're supporter of it or not, it's psychoactive drug, like it or not), coffee (yes, coffee), playing video games, watching tv, watching porn or something these are all the things that only help you kill your time and escape reality.
Of course, I know that there is plenty of research that coffee helps you boost your brain performance a bit, video games help you keep your brain active and sometimes they are believed to slow down dementia among elder people or help improve your reflex. Also as you mentioned weed has been used in many forms of therapeutic purposes. I know it. But in most cases there are used just to kill the time and escape.
Depends
There are some kinds of alcohol that are tasty but it's a subjective opinion of mine.
See this is a problem right now. More and more people suffer from many kinds of psychological disorders BUT sometimes most of them only claim to be sick just to get attention or something. Personally, I struggle a lot with accepting the fact that someone tells me that they have some weird thoughts or feelings etc. Because sometimes people exagerrate things. This whole depression thing that is so popular right now is also kind of irritating. Depression, and I'm talking here about serious mental issue, is a very dangerous illness but most people tend to overuse this term to describe even the slightest drop in their mood. This way you have teenagers who can't buy their favourite clothes or someting pretending that they are sick and depressed. Or people at work pretending that they have "mental issues" just to have some benefits at work or be treated in a different way. I've experienced it myself when I had to do twice or triple amount of work with my friend because one woman from our team always had some "problems". And unfortunately, there is no way to lay her off or something because I work at the corporation that is VERY VERY leftist and "tolerant".
Also when someone tells me this kind of stuff it's very annoying when I tell them to go to see a doctor and they reply "And what is he going to do about it? He will not be able to help me". I mean WHAT THE FUCK?! How the hell am I suppose to know how the psychiatrist is going to help you if I have very little knowledge about it. I just try to help you find some kind of solution to your issue. Go and see him and you will see. It's very exhausting to me. Personally, I am very strong minded person and this is not my opinion. I went to a therapy in 2018 because I wanted to consult a little problem that later on revealed itself to be no problem at all. After a few sessions my therapist told me that she had never met a person with such high level of self-control and strong mind. I've been through a lot of bad things in my life, bad childhood and very difficult start of my adult life but I never had a time to "be depressed" or even think about myself in this way. I had many problems that I had to overcome and I didn't hide myself under "depression cloak" or "mental illness cloak" but fought back. And this is the reason why I very struggle with understanding people who tell me "You know I've been having this type of thoughts recently, I don't know what to do about it etc". It's very discomforting for me. I try to be supportive but I truly don't know how to handle this type of situations. I know that patience is the key here but my patience also has limits. :/
Also as I mentioned, times we're living in don't help at all as a lot of people are very weak minded so these types of issues will be seen more and more frequently.