We learned that Libertarians will constantly compare alcohol and narcotics while using the word "Prohibition" and assert they are exactly the same thing when in fact they are very very different.
Alcohol has been part of the culture as far back as human history records. It is engrained in the society and has always been so. These various narcotics, of which Marijuana happens to be one of the least dangerous, have not been widely used for any significant length of time.
They are not ingrained in the social fabric and nor should we allow them to become ingrained.
Alcohol kills about 85,000 people per year, and does untold other damage, but society has deliberately chosen to accept these losses. We should not be wanting another drug to add death and misery to the toll already exacted from the other one.
What's ingrained in the social fabric doesn't appear to be under government's control: lifetime pot usage continues to grow and now stands at 44%.
There's evidence of marijuana use going back at least a few thousand years. Here is one example -- World's Oldest Marijuana Stash Totally Busted
They are not ingrained in the social fabric and nor should we allow them to become ingrained.
About half the people in the U.S. have tried marijuana at some point or another. The overwhelming majority have done so with zero negative effects.
They were not arrested, did not drive their car off a cliff, did not lose their homes, jobs or families & did not accidentally kill their cats by putting them in a microwave.
How about this? -- we let adults decide what to put into their bodies instead of crying for Big Government to protect us from the demon weed? (I do realize such a concept is alien to those who do not favor small government).
Marijuana's History: How One Plant Spread Through the World:
From the sites where prehistoric hunters and gatherers lived, to ancient China and Viking ships, cannabis has been used across the world for ages, and a new report presents the drug's colorful history.
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Cannabis plants are believed to have evolved on the steppes of Central Asia, specifically in the regions that are now Mongolia and southern Siberia, according to Warf. The history of cannabis use goes back as far as 12,000 years, which places the plant among humanity's oldest cultivated crops, according to information in the book "Marihuana: The First Twelve Thousand Years" (Springer, 1980).
And many wish to legalize only marijuana -- which would be like legalizing only wine during Prohibition.
Yet they claim that legalizing marijuana will solve all the problems associated with the "War on Drugs".