Leonard C. Goodman is a Chicago criminal defense attorney and co-owner of the newly independent Reader.
A generation ago, Americans looked to the federal government for more enlightened policies in areas of civil rights and criminal justice reform. Today, the tables have turned. Progressive ideas are now getting a hearing only in statehouses while the federal government has turned its back on the poor and politically powerless. No policy that threatens the investment returns of the major campaign donors to the Democratic and Republican Parties can get a fair hearing in the halls of Congress or at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
In contrast, the federal government has little concern for budgets or deficits. It currently spends about a trillion dollars more annually than it collects in taxes. If a policy is beneficial to the donor class, it continues on, regardless of its effectiveness. Keeping marijuana classified as an illegal, highly addictive drug with no medical value benefits Big Pharma, a major donor to both Democrats and Republicans, because it forces people to purchase their products instead of using homegrown remedies that are cheaper and often more effective and less toxic. It also benefits for-profit prison companies like the GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America, also major donors to our politicians. In 2018, more than 650,000 people were arrested for a marijuana law violation.
