Weed, America’s #1 cash crop!
According to a new study circulated in major newspapers, marijuana is America’s leading cash crop, with estimated production of $35.8 billion, surpassing corn ($23 bil), soy ($17.6 bil) and hay ($12.2 bil). The report was written by Jon Gettman, PhD, former director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and cites figures from the 2005 State Department report, which estimates the country’s weed production at 10,000 metric tons (22 mil+ pounds), ten times that in 1981. California has the state lead in growing over a third of the nation’s harvest (38%) and has 3.3 million users (13% of the nation’s smokers). Most of this ganja, about 56 million plants, are grown outside, but a significant 11.7 million are grown indoors. As of now, all of the crop’s $35 billion goes to ‘criminals’. If marijuana laws were reformed and weed was taxed by the government, a ’sin tax’ like that on cigarettes, the benefit for society might far outweigh any imagined detriment.
Marijuana Production in the United States (2006), Jon Gettman, DrugScience.org
Pot is called biggest cash crop, LATimes.com