Everyone has their anecdotes. Some of us even get to publish them in L.A. Times.
Whatever science that article purports to represent appears to have been artfully blurred with opinion and then left unreferenced.
I don't think anyone is arguing that becoming reliant on a substance (which I would argue you are if you're using it daily over the long-term) is beneficial. The ERE model in particular would suggest being reliant on as few necessities as possible. Addiction and its long-term outcomes are certainly inefficient. It's also a strawman position in this topic, though. No one is asking, "Should I become addicted to this and use it daily for the rest of my life?" (Nor is that a necessary outcome of occasional use, as cannabis is not physically addicting.)
I maintain my positions: that at least a great deal of the fear-mongering surrounding cannabis is the result of good old corporate-sponsored government propaganda, so there is not much reliable science confirming negative impacts; the science that is available lends me to believe that occasional recreational use of cannabis is about the least deleterious method of obtaining a buzz (except maybe caffeine*). Ergo, if buzz is desired--and whether or not altered consciousness is desirable is also not germane--then cannabis is the optimum choice, IMO.
*BTW, @Dragline, my argument with caffeine was not really to say that alcohol and cannabis are in the same league as coffee, but rather that cannabis has about as much in common with coffee as it does with alcohol. Caffeine is also physically addictive where cannabis is not. It really is comparing apples to oranges, which is sort of the point: I object to lumping cannabis in with alcohol as I believe alcohol is far worse. (Notably, you object to lumping caffeine with alcohol for the same reason of severity.) If cannabis to coffee is a forced comparison, it's as forced as cannabis to alcohol.
Also, caffeine overdose is eminently possible with energy drinks and/or pills for small or sensitive people. Granted, perhaps not so much with coffee/espresso and almost certainly not with tea. My GF is extremely sensitive to caffeine and has also experienced overdose.
At the end of the day, you can screw up your life with anything. Long-term daily abuse of sucrose doesn't look pretty after a few decades, either, for that matter.