It should be treated the same legally as those other plants. I'm not saying the effects of consuming any of those plants are similar to each other.

Then I have truly no idea by what method you categorize drugs

Kava, kratom, salvia are all federally legal and basically unregulated.some states have laws about these plants. I think marijuana should fall into the same category as these other plants in regards to how the government is involved. What is hard to understand about that?