Marijuana top U.S. cash crop

Since the time of Prohibition, the US Government has been warring on substances they deem immoral, or illegal. Though billions of dollars has been poured into the fight against drugs, one public policy analyst as determined that marijuana is worth more than corn and wheat combined.



There are many who believe the war on drugs is lost, and like some progressive European countries, drugs should be legalized. Here in the US, there has been a growing movement to legalize marijuana, citing medical usage.
Though marijuana is claimed to be a gateway drug, most people, before smoking it, smoked cigarettes first. However cigarettes are known to have no medicinal value, and are simply a delivery method for the drug nicotine, making it the true gateway drug.
So many billions of dollars are spent fighting the usage of marijuana, so many people are in jail for selling it, or being in possession of it that it has being a huge drain on the countries finances.
Also, because no one perfected the THC free hemp, there goes a viable crop for cash strapped smaller farms, who could grow it for the oils used in different products, industrial, and cosmetic, as well as the fibers which can be used in clothing, rope, paper making, ect.
It would seen that the Government, by insisting on labeling marijuana as a Schedule 3 narcotic could well be doing the nation more harm than good.
Unless they now are using it as a weapon in the war against obesity.

Related News Links:
www.norml.org
www.hemphousemaui.com
www.drugscience.org


Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
War on Drugz - Politicians smoke Amerika
America: Incarceration Nation - 7,000,000 on Probation, Parole, and in Jail!

[edit on 19/12/2006 by Mirthful Me]

[edit on 2006-12-19 by wecomeinpeace]

[edit on 2006-12-19 by wecomeinpeace]

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[edit on 2006-12-19 by wecomeinpeace]

I have some good advice for you.

Stay away from pot and other illegal drugs and if you really want to save yourself some money and a lot of needless headaches, stay away from tobacco and alcohol, too.

That makes the whole issue of legalization a lot easier to deal with on a personal level.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
I have some good advice for you.

Stay away from pot and other illegal drugs and if you really want to save yourself some money and a lot of needless headaches, stay away from tobacco and alcohol, too.

That is true. Marijuana's cost is so high because of the way it must be obtained, which causes alot of headaches.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
I have some good advice for you.

Stay away from pot and other illegal drugs and if you really want to save yourself some money and a lot of needless headaches, stay away from tobacco and alcohol, too.

That makes the whole issue of legalization a lot easier to deal with on a personal level.

I am not sure what you are saying.
Are you implying that I am a user of "pot" or "other illegal drugs"? Because that is how I am reading this.
I don't do drugs, so what advice do you have for me?
And what personal level do you mean?
The reason I posted this, is that I found it an interesting, and thought provoking, not because I have some personal interest in it.
Yes, I do have a problem with morality laws, and save the idiots from themselves laws.. Protecting the innocent from the idiots, I am all in favor of. However, I do not think that is what current marijuana laws are about.
Does any one remember the commercials a few years back that stated that more people in suburbia are using marijuana?
But yet, where are most of the people in jail for selling and/or posession from?
Thre is a growing demand for hemp based products, in part because of the legalize marijuana campaign, I admit.
But farmers cannot take advantage of this because as far as I know, no species of hemp has been bred to be completely THC free.
I recall something where one type of hemp had been bred so that it was virtually THV free, VIRTUALLY, but because it has a slight trace of THC, the entire crop had to be destroyed, even though one would have to smoke about 3 tons of the stuff to get a buzz.
And as far as medicinal use is, if there were no medicinal value, why then, as my memory recalls, at one point in time, you could get a special prescription for marijuana.. This is 20 years or so ago at least, and it was for the treatment of glaucoma.
Thne that ceased.
Now mounting evidence has shown that it does have value, again for glaucoma treatment, and for those taking the cocktail of drugs for the treatment of AIDS, as well as those undergoing chemoptherapy.
IF there were no medicinal value, why then would the drug companies rush out with their synthetic forms? Synthetic forms which are less effective than the natural form, (as much as hybridized, bred for potantcy cannabis can be concidered natural), which can have detrimental side effects that make them more dangerous for the immediate health of the person taking them.
The truth is, there is money in the so called war against drugs. And there is money in the pharacopia provided by the drug companies.
It pays to have more prisons built, than to have schools built, to push money into failing drug programs, than to give children a sense of value, and worth, that pulls them out of the streets, and away from the illict drug culture, whether and a provider, or an imbiber.
Aside from the marijuana contriversy, there is that of hemp.
Today, cotton is at risk, from the dropping number of available bees to pollinate it, as bees are being infested at an alarming rate by varroa mites, which have become resistant to the pesticides used to control them, as well as the emergence of the herbicide resistant plant, Palmer Amaranth, also known as pig weed.
Hemp could well be the answer to both of these problems.