@imrainmaker – Federal laws technically override contradictory state laws. The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution lays it out, but it usually takes a test case before anything can be clarified and enforced.
Usually the Federal government has to be the slower to act just because they are essentially reacting to the change by the State. It’s probably a good thing in the long term, but states have realized that basically anything they can get approved will be the local law for a voting cycle. It may not always be politically motivated, but it seems to be usually.
The abortion case is one example, going the other way, California has some of the loosest regulations on marijuana and they conflict with federal laws in several areas. Rather than strike down the law, they seem to be prosecuting individuals (Matthew Davies, Harborside Health Center – recently dropped).
Just showing each side to show it’s complicated, and you can’t necessarily count on Federal law stepping in and clarifying. It takes years and sometimes isn’t as clear cut as we’d like.
Remember all the things that are now commonplace that people have gone to jail for.