Let's face the fact: cannabis is illegal for the same reasons that we're funding illegal and immoral wars in the Middle East. The government, and the corporations that fund political campaigns, achieve greater profits keeping this plant illicit. If they don't care about throwing bombs on children (and innocent adults), what makes anyone think that they care about people like Susan Meehan and her sick child? We could make a list that stetches a mile of all the entities that benefit from illicit drugs.
Too many people in America (and across the world) jump to the conclusion that campaign finance reform is the way to deal with corporations and their corrupting influence on the political process. The answer is to work towards entirely eliminating government.