revealed preference: pot beats corn and wheat

that's right. the top US cash crop is marijuana (PDF). notwithstanding my skepticism regarding accuracy figures from an illegal substance (and note the report's source), this is interesting. it makes me wonder why the government doesn't just make it legal and tax the hell out of it. i'm sure that would curb its use a million times more than their prohibition.

some quotes from the ABC article:

"Just because it's a good cash crop doesn't mean you should legalize and tax it." -- DEA

despite massive eradication efforts at the hands of the federal government, "marijuana has become a pervasive and ineradicable part of the national economy."

The study estimates that marijuana production, at a value of $35.8 billion, exceeds the combined value of corn ($23.3 billion) and wheat ($7.5 billion).

if the United States legalized marijuana, the country would save $7.7 billion in law enforcement costs and could generated as much as $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like alcohol or tobacco.

perhaps this report will make people wonder: if pot is such a huge industry, and so many people do it, is it really that deleterious?

so why not legalize? here are just a few reasons. we have an entire governmental industry and propaganda machine built to serve the drug war. an entire governmental industry = lots of jobs, and it's hard to muster support for such a huge cut. this propaganda machine funded a lot of scientists and government officials to say lots of crazy things, which brings egos into the equation. and at the risk of sounding like a paranoid nut, many privacy infringements are rationalized by the drug war that would be made less justifiable if it were no more. although, the patriot act may be able to substitute now...

Labels: drugs, political