The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader, 26 Dec 2012 – I keep hearing people say our new law to legalize marijuana isn’t going to hold up because federal law always supersedes state laws. This is just not true. The Founding Fathers did not allow for a totalitarian central government. The Constitution separates the powers between the state and federal governments. Drugs clearly fall under the state jurisdiction. This is why the Volstead Act in 1919 to prohibit alcohol needed to be backed up by the 18th Amendment. Everyone realized the feds did not have authority to override state liquor laws without changing the Constitution.