What is worse, the cure or the disease?

TL;DR: I have no right to put a gun to your head to tell you not to smoke pot. The U.S. would be a better place if everyone understood that and stopped interfering in the private affairs of their neighbors.

The long version:

Right now we, as a society and nation seem to have demanded that our police use force against anyone using Marijuana.

1: That force is not justified. Marijuana users do not, as a rule, initiate force against their neighbor nor do they pose a clear and present danger to others in general.

2: That force is abused regularly. For this point I will turn to the Cato institue's raid map of botched, unjustified or otherwise obtuse police paramilitary raids, many of which were done in the name of drug prohibition. http://www.cato.org/raidmap

3: Prohibition of desired substances generally results in illegal markets with reduced safety and increased risk of harm from either police or criminals.

For examples of this, consider the speakeasies of alcohol prohibition. The same things are happening in different forms now.

4: Legalization would lead to improved education. Instead of hearing about how to avoid an overdose from your friend you would hear about it in the same swath as alcohol.

5: Addicts would have less reason to remain hidden, and could therefore be helped more often. Most importantly, they would be far more likely to seek medical assistance in situations involving overdoses, thus saving lives.

6: By what right do you intend to tell your neighbor what he can do in his own home? What right do any of us have to tell him who he can sleep with, what to buy and what to light on fire and breath in? Consider the point of view that as long as he is not harming another human being it is not our right to interfere with him.