Our friends at MyBallard sat down with 36th District Representative Mary Lou Dickerson recently to talk about what she’s working on for the upcoming legislative session, which convenes on Jan. 11. One bill she’s looking to sponsor is one which would legalize marijuana.

As Chair of the Human Services Committee, which oversees corrections and juvenile justice issues, it’s long been clear to me that we need to make smarter investments in criminal justice, drug and mental health treatment and other efforts that DO work to reduce criminal and unhealthy behavior. We simply can’t afford to waste more time, money or human resources on efforts that don’t work and that can actually backfire to harm people we want to help.

Read the full interview here.