A nonpartisan national organization that represents state legislatures demanded Thursday that Congress overhaul federal drug laws and allow states to establish their own policies for marijuana and hemp.

The National Conference of State Legislatures approved the policy statement in a voice vote Thursday, throwing its support behind a states’ rights position that polls often find more popular than specific drug law reforms.

“[T]he National Conference of State Legislatures believes that federal laws, including the Controlled Substances Act, should be amended to explicitly allow states to set their own marijuana and hemp policies without federal interference and urges the administration not to undermine state marijuana and hemp policies,” the resolution says.

The resolution recognizes “members have differing views on how to treat marijuana and hemp in their states and believes that states and localities should be able to set whatever marijuana and hemp policies work best to improve the public safety, health, and economic development of their communities.”

State Rep. Renny Cushing, D-N.H., sponsored the measure. The lower house of New Hampshire’s legislature, in which he serves, last year became the first state legislative body in the U.S. to pass a tax-and-regulate marijuana legalization bill, though that effort later stalled.

Thus far, voter-passed initiatives have produced further-reaching effects than reforms approved by state legislatures, beginning with California’s groundbreaking medical marijuana initiative in 1996 and continuing with ballot initiatives that in 2012 and 2014 legalized recreational marijuana under local law in four states and the nation’s capital.

“The voters have stimulated conversation among state legislators and state legislators in response are calling on the federal government not to be an impediment," Cushing says. “[The resolution] means the states are no longer going to be willing participants in the war on drugs."

A super majority of 75 percent was required for adoption of the measure. Each state’s appointed representatives had one vote and 49 were on the floor, Cushing says, and opposition was so small there was no need for a recorded tally.

Though marijuana possession for any reason outside limited research remains a federal crime, federal prosecutors and law enforcement agents generally respect state marijuana policies, in line with guidance from the Justice Department that encourages use of discretion focusing on certain priorities, such as preventing access to minors and interstate drug smuggling.

But there have been high-profile instances where state autonomy has been seen as under assault. The Drug Enforcement Administration last year seized hemp seeds en route to Kentucky’s Department of Agriculture for legal pilot programs and in Washington state medical marijuana patients await sentencing after being convicted of violating federal law for tending a collective garden that only slightly exceeded state limits.

Congress reacted to these incidents last year by passing spending restrictions that bar the Justice Department from using money to hinder state medical marijuana and hemp programs. The administration’s view of these restrictions, which did not change underlying federal law, is somewhat unclear. The House re-approved the amendments in June, but narrowly rejected a measure to protect state recreational marijuana laws.

“I think there’s every indication that a sea change is taking place in the country,” Cushing says. “People are realizing it’s the end of prohibition, the parallels are very similar to what happened when the U.S. realized the prohibition of alcohol was a failed public policy.”

Cushing says he doesn’t know if any state lawmakers have visited state-legal marijuana shops in Seattle, where the conference was hosted. “If I have time I may want to do that myself,” he says, noting he did tour a bakery making marijuana-infused goods.

Pro-legalization groups quickly issued statements celebrating the action.

“This resolution is a strong indication that legislators throughout the nation are not just hearing from but listening to their constituents,” said Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project, which intends to support a half dozen legalization ballot initiatives in 2016.

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“The overwhelming support for this resolution shows clear bipartisan support for states' right to create their own drug policies,” said Diane Goldstein of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.