According to the LA Times:
A report released today by a marijuana public policy analyst contends that the market value of pot produced in the U.S. exceeds $35 billion  far more than the crop value of such heartland staples as corn, soybeans and hay, which are the top three legal cash crops.
…
The report estimates that marijuana production has increased tenfold in the past quarter century despite an exhaustive anti-drug effort by law enforcement.
…
Nationwide, the estimated cannabis production of $35.8 billion exceeds corn ($23 billion), soybeans ($17.6 billion) and hay ($12.2 billion), according to Gettman’s findings.
Now, forgive my ignorance as I’ve never actually so much as seen a real marijuana cigarette in person, but I don’t think I’ve ever really heard anything bad about pot other than it being a gateway drug. For example, I’ve never heard this on COPS “He was so wigged out on pot that we had to Taser him to get him under control…”.
It seems like abusing pot just turns you into a mellow loser sort of a person, so I have to ask the question. Why not legalize it, tax the heck out of it, and let market forces do the rest. If it were legalized the price would drop through the floor, even with taxation, and that should convince some growers to switch to other more lucrative crops.
Heck, I’ve been to Amsterdam where it’s totally legal and it didn’t seem to be causing any issues there… For example:
But to the Dutch, the easy availability of cannabis has eliminated much of its appeal.
You can read the entire article, with lots of interesting data, on the LA Times site. It also has a little 2 minute video of the news.
