I agree it’s about the scope. Frankly, I am a little amazed by the focus on pot. I have had many discussions over the years with libertarians, and they are often focused on pot above seemingly all else. Like you wrote, government—the federal government nonetheless—is regulating virtually every aspect of life these days. There are far, far more liberties at stake here than pot.
Young women are going to line up to vote Democrat over abortion (which wasn’t even made illegal by SCOTUS) and Libertarians wouldn’t support Trump last election because he wasn’t doing enough to legalize pot. I mean, talk about cutting your own throat.
Well pot is the “easy” one. It was the last of the pre-designer drugs to be made illegal, it’s the one that the most people think is kind of silly to have illegal, the one that the highest percentage of the population has done in spite of it being illegal. The one with the most support to legalize.