But government of any kind—short of anarchy—always controls individual behavior. It’s a matter of degree, and it’s the price we all must pay to live in civilization. Why? Because no one is an island. The things you do in private often can and do affect others. So even if I agree pot should be legal, it’s something that needs considerable safeguards to limit the damage to society.
Libertarians on pot sound like pro-aborts on abortion to me. All they seem to care about is their own, selfish rights, not the rights of anyone else who has to deal with the societal problems created in the process. And even if a particular individual is a responsible pothead, the ready availability of high potency THC products are not used responsibly by many others, creating issues for the rest of us to deal with.
It’s about the scope. If your behavior isn’t effecting anybody it’s not the government’s business. At least not if the government is structured to be limited like ours originally was. And we see with how much we have to shred the BOR to enforce these laws exactly why the founders were for that dividing line. We’re in a situation now where if you try to buy too much sudafed the government could decide you’re cooking meth and kick your door in, and if you also have a coffee maker (ie a heat source, beaker and filtering system) by law you DO have a meth lab. They’re trying to control a black market that they forced into existence. And in so doing have made so every bank transaction is now evidence against you.