He can’t go back because it’s not a legalized state.

They means this in the sense of "not a state where marijuana use is legal," right? I assume that's the self-medicating they're talking about. So what did he do when he lived there before?

I don't want to dispute that marijuana is medically useful for many conditions. But I cannot help but notice that the pattern here appears to be "He didn't have difficulty functioning in our hometown, but then we moved to a new state where marijuana was legalized and he started smoking, and now he's not functioning any more," and, well, this makes me question some things.