Fritchey says there are roughly 20,000 marijuana arrests in Chicago each year, and most cases are dismissed. However, the legal process costs taxpayers millions of dollars.
"The war on drugs has led to a policy where we are unnecessarily putting tens of thousands of people in jail," Fritchey said Monday at a press conference, "giving hundreds of thousands of people an arrest record and costing the U.S. economy billions of dollars unnecessarily without advancing any of the policies>
Fritchey was joined by three state lawmakers who say they're working on a bill to decriminalize marijuana that would address some of Fritchey's concerns.
