dirtboy:
Well, you unfortuately have a real problem with the 10th amendment, then. Because, according to the 10th, it IS a state's decision about such. Or should be, until SCOTUS decides that words mean what they wish them to mean.
S-man:
Reread my post. The 10th Amendment does NOT make smoking pot a right.
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Smoking ANYthing is an unenumerated right under the 9th Amendment. -- A right that can be 'reasonably regulated' by State & local gov'ts, -- but not outright prohibited.
The 10th Amendment limits fed/state/local governments from using those powers prohibited in the rest of the Constitution & Amendments.
Gov't must use only powers delegated to them by the people, who have limited themselves in the power to infringe on each others individual rights.
-- IE -- 'I won't try to suppress your liberty, if you don't try to suppress mine'; -- is the basic [much abused] Law of the Land.
The Ninth Amendment does not state that every action that is not mentioned in the Constitution is a de facto right. Treason is the only crime mentioned in the Constitution. The only possible inference to be taken in relation to the WOD is that smoking pot cannot be said to be constitutionally prohibited. I don't think anyone has every stated that it was.
Amendment X The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
The Tenth Amendment clearly states that the people of the states are reserved the power to enact laws which they see fit, provided that those laws do not transgress those rights enumerated in the Constitution. Where is smoking anything enumerated?