I have a friend who is kinda tight-ass and priggish about spirituality and enlightenment. As a goofy joke and a poke at these aspects of his belief system and ideals of enlightened beings, I told him I was going to buy a cigar and smoke it if I got stream entry. (I rarely smoke tobacco)
I was smoking marijuana the day I got stream entry. Yesterday, I indeed smoked that cigar to celebrate, and it was everything I'd hoped it would be.
I don't think that spiritual progress or orientation gives anyone a right to neglect morality and conduct, but I also don't think that morality and conduct just flow from spiritual progress or orientation. I'm not trying to encourage or justify drug use. I'm just trying to make this point: many people have all sorts of notions of what is holy and unholy, what is spiritual and non-spiritual, what is ethical and unethical. Holiness, spirituality, and ethics are all just more ways we create conditions we think we need to meet. No one needs to align with "good" or "holy" or "spiritual" to get enlightened. There are particular conditions that are conductive to getting enlightened. Those conditions aren't the actual enlightenment, and may even be
corrupting insight. Path doesn't happen when you rub the Buddha's tummy or when you find the right religion. All you have to do is set up the right conditions (which really translates to sustaining and flowing with an insight practice of some sort). The conditions don't mean a thing though, besides the functions the conditions may serve in leading to whatever results you're looking for. That's my understanding of pragmatism and why it trumps value-judgment oriented thinking and practice.
Smoke a joint, get enlightened. Smoke a cigar, still enlightened. Call it immature, but I don't mind indulging in a thought-mix of honesty, humor, wisdom, and pleasure.
*shrug*