Marijuana Top US Cash Crop, Analyst Says [View All]

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061218/us_nm/usa_marijuana_dc">Marijuana Top US Cash Crop, Analyst Says

By David Alexander
December 18, 2006



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. growers produce nearly $35 billion worth of marijuana annually, making the illegal drug the country's largest cash crop, bigger than corn and wheat combined, an advocate of medical marijuana use said in a study released on Monday.

The report, conducted by Jon Gettman, a public policy analyst and former head of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, also concluded that five U.S. states produce more than $1 billion worth of marijuana apiece: California, Tennessee, Kentucky, Hawaii and Washington.

California's production alone was about $13.8 billion, according to Gettman, who waged an unsuccessful six-year legal battle to force the government to remove marijuana from a list of drugs deemed to have no medical value.

Tom Riley, a spokesman for the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, said he could not confirm the report's conclusions on the size of the country's marijuana crop. But he said the government estimated overall U.S. illegal drug use at $200 billion annually. Gettman's figures were based on several government reports between 2002 and 2005 estimating the United States produced more than 10,000 metric tons of marijuana annually.

He calculated the producer price per pound of marijuana at $1,606 based on national survey data showing retail prices of between $2,400 and $3,000 between 2001 and 2005. The total value of 10,000 metric tons of marijuana at $1,606 per pound would be $35.8 billion.

By comparison, the United States produced an average of nearly $23.3 billion worth of corn annually from 2003 to 2005, $17.6 billion worth of soybeans, $12.2 billion worth of hay, nearly $11.1 billion worth of vegetables and $7.4 billion worth of wheat, the report said.

Gettman said the 10-fold increase in U.S. marijuana production, from 1,000 metric tons in 1981 to 10,000 metric tons in 2006, showed the country was failing to control marijuana by making its cultivation and use illegal. "Marijuana has become a pervasive and ineradicable part of the economy of the United States," he said. "The contribution of this market to the nation's gross domestic product is overlooked in the debate over effective control."

"Like all profitable agricultural crops marijuana adds resources and value to the economy," he added. "The focus of public policy should be how to effectively control this market through regulation and taxation in order to achieve immediate and realistic goals, such as reducing teenage access."

Riley said illegal drug use was a "serious part of the economy," but he rejected the notion of an economic argument for legalizing marijuana. He said marijuana use was an "inherently harmful activity" with serious physical and mental health consequences. He said more American teens were in treatment centers for marijuana dependency than for all other drugs combined.

*** - And just think: marijuana achieved this greatness without government farm subsidies or low-interest loan programs. "Farmers" weren't induced not to plant the crop in an effort to control pricing. No long-lasting and devastating pollutants were created to aid in its growth or to kill off pests. In addition to its principal purpose for growth, Its products include:

* Textile fabric
* Medicinal palliative
* Alternative for plastic vehicle fenders
* Fodder for all Cheech and Chong movies of the 70s
* Primary financial support for Frito-Lay and others in the snack food industry

It can be grown almost anywhere, in poor soils to fertile valleys, to craggy mountaintops, to living rooms and dens. Studies have shown its medicinal efficacy far beyond man-made duplicative pharmaceuticals designed to mimic it. And yet in the ?wisdom? of our government, Americans get no tax benefits from it since it persists in logging it under Schedule I "narcotic drugs." Yet marijuana could very likely and single-handedly replenish all the monies stolen from the Social Security Trust Fund with enough probably leftover for every American to vacation at least once in Barbados in their lifetime.

It designation as an illegal drug also ramps up the tension between law enforcement and the criminal underworld -- displacing valuable resources that could be used to staunch other societal ills, like drunk driving that kills thousands every year, or domestic abuse. Maybe even terrorism. But most importantly although most often overlooked, is the fact that marijuana is a critical component that helps support our financial system through the use of staid and legitimate financial institutions like Citibank, Bank of America and the Mellon Bank in their efforts to "launder" the ill-gotten gains to pristine shiny, clean money.

This, among other reasons, is why I've chosen my signature line from Ralph Waldo Emerson which says: "A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered."