Marijuana top US cash crop

[reorg]

Marijuana top US cash crop
China daily (Reuters)
Updated: 2006-12-21 10:08

WASHINGTON - US growers produce nearly US$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 US states produce more than US$1 billion worth of marijuana apiece: California, Tennessee, Kentucky, Hawaii and Washington.

California's production alone was about US$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.

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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.

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http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-12/21/content_764397.htm

[Tesla]

1. Why is it still illegal?

[Ellis Wyatt]

3. because

it's fun. Fun is not allowed.

[Wise Doubter]

2. In the immortal words of Jeff Spicoli....

"All I need are some tasty waves and cool buds.. ..and I'm fine."

[pkz]

4. I believe it

We have a farm in the southern part of the state. In the late summer the feds fly over in a chopper armed with missiles, a trooper hanging out with a huge rifle. They make a coupla passes, a coupla busts and then fly away.

Too make sure no one plants on us, we have to hire a guy to patrol our property daily in season.

They closed all the mines, the manufacturing is gone...what's a guy to do?

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. I went to Humboldt State University in California

The school colors actually are green and gold (people of a certain age and life-philosophy will, no doubt, recall the reverential whispers about Humboldt Gold.) (HSU has no school of agriculture, despite persistent rumors.)

Humboldt County is very rural and pretty poor. Logging has come to a nearly complete halt, and harvesting wild (and mostly legal) mushrooms is too marginal to provide more than a hobby income. A great many people grow pot because it is the only relatively viable means of survival. Had the state's "Campaign Against Marijuana Production" (CAMP) actually succeeded, the economy of Humboldt, Del Norte and a few of the surrounding counties would have collapsed entirely.

[maddezmom]

6. duplicate topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2658105