MARIJUANA BIGGER US CASH CROP than corn and hay; Market value: $35b.

RAW STORY
Published: Monday December 18, 2006

The value of the marijuana grown in the United States is greater than all of the corn or hay produced in the country's agricultural sector, according to a story in today's Los Angeles Times.

The article by reporter Eric Bailey quotes a report from Jon Gettman, an independent consultant who used government statistics to show the value of marijuana as a cash crop. The drug's worth exceeds $35 billion, and its illicit cultivation in the US has grown by ten times since 1981.

But the US government responded that the drug should not be legalized. A representative of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy warned that "Coca is Colombia's largest cash crop and that hasn't worked out for them, and opium poppies are Afghanistan's largest crop, and that has worked out disastrously for them."

The full article can be accessed by registered users at the LA Times website. An excerpt is provided below.

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