"IOW, you believe that those who don't think like you do should be considered criminals."
No. You are free to have a different opinion and not think like me. You are free to express those opinions. But if you sell, possess, use or distribute illegal drugs then you are a criminal. That is a simple fact.
That is also the main focus of this debate. Some people believe that using drugs to get high is immoral but should not be illegal. Some do not see it as immoral and think it should be legalized. Some think it is immoral and think that the laws prohibiting these drugs are reasonable. I am in the last group.
. . . by government decree alone. You have no problem with government legislating by decree . . . by not formulating a basis for legislation in natural law? If 51% of the electorate in your community decided that eating potatoes was detrimental to the public health, would you gladly stop eating potatoes?
Put another way, absent government action, what portion of natural law, except for the law of survival, makes consuming one substance a crime and consuming another not a crime? Do you not have a natural law right to sovereignty over your own body?