On the contrary, my friend, it should be quite easy---you've already set the standard, common sense, so use it. I assure you that even a slovenly pot-head like me can recognize good old-fashioned common sense when I see it.
I would be more convinced of the integrity of your position concerning anti-drug laws if you quit breaking them or, Gandhi- or King-like, lit up a fatty on your hometown courthouse steps in broad daylight, and then took the legal consequences arising from such an action.
Tit for tat: I'd be more convinced of the integrity of your conservatism, or that your argument has its basis in conservatism, if you weren't an admitted former leftist! It's not shocking to me that a statist would argue that the state owns my body; it makes perfect ideological sense. This web site stands for personal liberty. Sell your big government policies elsewhere.
At least then your stance would be principled. As it is, a scofflaw has no ground upon which to stand in such a discussion. Do you tell your kids it's okay to cherry-pick the rules by which we play? To ignore those laws with which they don't agree?
During the simple course of living, you probably break six or seven laws per day you don't even know about. Ever go more than 65 MPH on the highway? Ever make a rolling stop at a stop sign? Ever cut that yellow light just a little close? Ever cross the street against traffic? Ever rip the tag off your mattress? The world still spins on its axis, and I certainly won't call out the Gestapo if my son breaks a rule some bureaucrat cooked up somewhere in order to keep his fat ass employed.If anything, I'd suggest this nation's marijuana prohibition laws actually foster the kind of cherry-picking you worry about. One would respect and understand laws based on reason. When laws have no basis in reason, the message is clear: law needs no basis in reason whatsoever.
I'm not throwing stones from some moral high ground here. I've seen scores of otherwise good people die, end up in prison, or permanently brain-damaged as the result of drug use. You know that ragged, homeless guy you see walking the street, mumbling nonsense to himself, oblivious to everything but his delusions, eating garbage, sleeping under the underpass? That was me. I was that man. So yeah, I feel passionately about this particular topic. I hate mind-altering drugs. I hate them with every fiber of my being. It's a horrible, vicious, nasty business, and no good can come from legalizing any of it.
If the above is true, then: (1) I'm glad you pulled through, and (2) since there's no bigger zealot than the recently reformed, it's senseless to argue this point with you. You're basing your argument on feeling and passion; I'm basing mine on reason.