Two must-reads from the latest issue of Governing

The August 2010 issue of the magazine Governing has its cover story devoted to the interesting and important (and under-appreciated) story of corrections reform in the state of Mississippi.  There are so many interesting parts to the stoty, I will just plug this piece by simply noting its headline and subheading: “Mississippi’s Corrections Reform: How America’s reddest state — and most notorious prison — became a model of corrections reform.”

In addition, the same issue has this astute commentary piece on one of my favorite policy topics under the headline “Marijuana: To Legalize or Not to Legalize?; Federal, state and local governments can’t seem to agree whether to legalize cannabis.” Here are two snippets this commentary:

Medical marijuana is in a legal and political twilight zone, caught between the ongoing policy battles on drugs and the pleas of patients suffering from painful, debilitating diseases. In fall 2009, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that in the 14 states permitting the sale of medical marijuana, the feds would focus only on big drug traffickers and money launderers. Republicans fired back that Holder was undermining federal laws and fueling the drug wars on the Mexican border. The House Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, Rep. Lamar Smith, countered: “We cannot hope to eradicate the drug trade if we do not first address the cash cow for most drug-trafficking organizations — marijuana.” The Cato Institute’s Tim Lynch countered yet again, saying the drug war had proven a “grand failure,” while advocates of legalizing marijuana quietly applauded….

It’s hard to think of a policy battle full of so much heat but backed by so little research. The drive for medical marijuana comes from two sources: the underground campaign to make marijuana legal, where advocates have long argued that the drug is a harmless recreation, and the desperate plight of patients suffering from chronic diseases, where traditional medicine has provided little relief….

Amid the ongoing federal war on drugs, the states are leading a noisy revolution to legalize marijuana, at least for medical use. The Obama administration said it will back off prosecuting drug laws in the states permitting medical marijuana, but in some local governments, opponents are fighting back to restrict where state-sanctioned marijuana can be sold. The state laws themselves are all over the map, from California’s permissive statute to New Jersey’s tough government regulation of the chain from plant to user. [Along the way], we’re clumsily drawing new lines on drug use as only American federalism can.