It would help a lot if we could get the feds out of it. Their job is at the border, not within the States. I can't speak for everyone, but I don't want a federal agency that was a willing participant in Fast and Furious getting too cozy with my local LEO. Bad juju, that.
Drugs come over the border. International criminals distribute drugs in our country and are within the purview of the feds as well as the states.
Its a profit item. Federal and other police agencies gain a significant part of their operating revenue from asset seizures.
I agree that this is really a state level issue. We talk about the Tenth Amendment in glowing terms when it does things that we like, but when the folks who utilize it are a bunch of pot smoking yahoos...not so much.
Freedom to succeed implies freedom to fail. WRT pot, it’s going to be legalized and I’d expect the Feds to be out of the business within 10 years. California will be the key. It’s a huge state, both physically and population wise, and once they gear up for legalized production continued prohibition at the Federal level is just going to be untenable.