By 1922 New York was fed up with Prohibition

[cthulu2016]

In 1923 the NY legislature passed a law eliminating New York's enforcement and enabling prohibition laws that had been passed parallel to the prohibition amendment and to federal law. Governor Smith, after much difficult political calculation, signed it.

New York said, essentially, "The federal government says alcohol is illegal, but we no longer have state laws to that effect and will no longer spend state resources enforcing what is a federal ban."

A New York city cop had no more power to bust you for alcohol than the Arizona state police today has to deport you. That's a job for the federals.

Needless to say, the US Treasury Department did not have the resources to keep New York dry.

The parallels to the complexities of contemporary state marijuana decriminalization laws are interesting. Essentially telling the federal government, "Do your own dirty work. We can't stop you but we don't need to help you."

[n2doc]

1. today is different

The feds have two powerful sticks to use
1. They do have the resources to police an entire state, even California. Or at least make it impossible to obtain MJ openly.
2. More to the point, they can threaten to refuse to provide money and resources to state law enforcement. And state Governments in general. There is a lot more money going to the states from the feds (and vice versa) now than in 1922.

[longship]

2. No one had the resources to keep anywhere dry.

Just like nobody has resources to keep US drug free. Especially marijuana.

Cannot be done. No way. No how.

Why didn't we learn this with the XVIII Amendment?

Meanwhile, how many are in prison for a long time for non-violent crimes, which should not be a crime.