Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent the country into a tizzy not long ago when he declared that the federal government would start cracking down on state-legal marijuana. This is problematic, but it's a symptom of a larger problem. Article I, Section 8, of the US Constitution lists the things that the federal government may concern itself with. Marijuana — indeed, any drug — is not on that list. In fact, a great many things that the federal government concerns itself with are not on that list. So how did we get to the point of having federal laws and regulations about marijuana and a number of other things? We had to have a Constitutional amendment to ban alcohol, so why doesn't the government need one to ban marijuana? James Harrigan and Antony Davies discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick hits

Sarah Silverman https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/sarah-silverman-befriends-troll-insulted-pays-medical-treatment/ 

CT considers raising its excise tax on cigarettes. Again. http://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-lafaive-ct-cigarette-tax-smuggling-0109-20180108-story.html 

What will mass-market driverless cars look like? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-12/gm-drops-the-steering-wheel-and-gives-the-robot-driver-control 

Foolishness of the Week

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/business/economy/irs-debt-collection.html 

  Topic of the Week: Federalism and Constitutional Amendments

Federalism and marijuana http://reason.com/archives/2018/01/10/federalists-cant-support-a-cannabis-crac 

Article One, Section 8 of the US Constitution https://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A1Sec8.html 

Wickard v. Filburn https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/317us111 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn