In “Washington Versus Washington (and Colorado): Why the States Should Lead on Marijuana Policy“, Rauch brilliantly explains how leaving Colorado and Washington alone “offers an opportunity to give the constitutional order a tune-up, putting play back in the joints of drug policy and channeling conflict toward constructive change—and thereby, if you will, bringing James Madison back into the game.”
The U.S. forefather gave federalism its flexibility, but the last century of politicians have made the system quite brittle, Rauch argues.
“Where illegal drugs and especially marijuana are concerned, … Madison’s mechanism has been largely disabled for decades by the federal government’s effective near-monopoly on policy. The result, I would argue, has been a shining example of counter-productivity and excess.”
Leave the states alone and let the founders’ vision truly manifest itself, he says. Read the whole paper here.