I have to comment to Frikkenkids. Your reference to the price of tobbaco ($2.00) must be in the raw form. In the street ready form it’s about 25 dollars a pound.
Further if you add the cost of law-enforcement, Prosecution, and incarcaration to the production value (all negative aspects of the production process). You easily get way above the 35 Billion mentioned in the origional article.
From a Social point of view the criminalization of weed has done what prohibition did in the 30’s. It has allowed a vast criminal network to blossom, including the corruption of all facets of the law enforcement agencies.
It’s time to reassess the value of criminalization to our society.

People like myself pay extra for top shelf liqueur. Sometimes over $100 for a 5th. And I know that I can spend $1000+ on a bottle too. And I would if I had the extra cash lying around.  Same goes for cannabis. Would I buy the $10 dollar a pound low grade at the pot shop? Sure. Once and awhile. But more often I would purchase the $100 +- dollar per pound hydroponic fine grade cannabis at the hash bar. Tax me. Enough of this black market idiocy. The government could reap in heavy loads of treasure to the public coffers. Hopefully not to continue funding this pre-emptive war lunacy however.
Legalize it. Let Peter Tosh advertise it. All this waiting around for the laws to change so I can smoke is killing me!

Lol so many issues to worry about… the war… the middle east… global warming, over population, drug addiction, disease, corruption, rape, drug lords, illegit/legit business’s u know the ones that stand in the ‘grey area’ that the government cant do shit about. Now we have drug dealers and young kids who are making more money than a 45 yr old broke ass filipino mom who works at a mc donalds. AMERICA HAS NO VALUE SYSTEM. land of the free? more like land of the corrupt. if you’re good looking and rich, you get away with anything.

By the way. Wasn’t alcohol once illegal? I don’t see the difference w/ marijuana and alcohol. It’s illegal because marijuana isnt a white mans drug.

Fuck you hypocritical leaders of the world.

Reply to Comment #42668 by FrikkenKids on 12/18 at 12:12 pm

“If marijuana was legal, the cash value of the crop would be a tiny fraction of the more than $35 billion estimated by the study.  If you go with $10/pound (more than 5 times the price for tobacco), the cash crop is suddenly worth only around $22 million, a figure almost meaningless to agriculture in the United States.”

These figures are also way off. If there were any sanity, cannabis would be treated about the same as wine. It would still be a good cash crop, and it would also generate a lot of tax revenue. I bet an ounce of top quality herb would still fetch $100 or more in a genuine free market (instead of $400 as it does now).

Even though I don’t smoke pot, or anything else, I still like to float around in a naive mental haze most of the time.

Like, man, one of my craziest notions is that living in the land of the free means I get to do whatever I damned well please just so long as I can afford it, and don’t hurt anyone or anything in the process. Isn’t that a pot-head crazy attitude?

I hate coming back to reality to realize that we, the people, most certainly are NOT FREE… we are under complete control of BIG GOVERNMENT who dictate the terms of how we live, where we live and even IF we live… all ACCORDING TO THEIR RULES, not ours.

What I don’t understand is why I get so much scorn from those to whom I express my notion. It’s obvious to me that what I say is the bare-bones truth. Why is everyone else in denial?

Of course we, the people, should grow and use marijuana if we so wish… even poppies and make opium. What business is it of BIG GOVERNMENT in a free land?

Control children if you must, BIG GOVERNMENT, BUT KEEP YOUR GODDAM RULES TO YOURSELF AND YOUR CORRUPT HANDS OFF MY LIFE & LIVING ARRANGEMENTS.

I guess I made my position clear. Thank you.

This is not about tobbacco,although Cuban /vs non Cuban cigars is illustrtive if only because of the prohibition.There will still be boutique strains ,verses proletariat strains of weed available,post legalization.Now ,I just vaporized a small 1/2 gm bud(NY diesel).I’ll smoke it later.Cost maybe 10 cents.Ripped for hours!Crumbowski,you guys in Humbolt county waste more in a year than i can smoke.Try a vaporizer and finish it with a one hitter.
Peace out! Remember the solstice 12/22/06 is Global Orgasm For Peace day !

FrikkenKids, Your point is well taken.Even the $1600.00 per pound value used in this projection, as conservative as it is,is tainted by prohibition.If legal “free market ” forces were to control commercial value.There might be a” boutique market ” and a proletariat price for a mass produced product.Just like the difference between a Cubana and a Dominican cigar.
Everyone would get richer.And this report ignores industrial Hemp. I tried to post some links but they were edited. Peace out!

At last, something to be proud of. Who says the Bu$h administration is completely inept. Wall St. will be rolling out the IPO’s any day. I can’t wait to watch “Mad Money” tonight to see what Kramer thinks about this one. Jim will undoubtedly be HIGH on POT.

Just think, If industrial Hemp were legalized nationally ,a non-intoxicating crop would top the list.Food ,fiber,ethanol,diesel,can you say balance of trade? Just think if Marijuana was legal,hundreds of thousands freed from prison.Billions in tax revenue,Hundreds of thousands of lives saved.Can you say balanced budget?

Everyone in Califonia where medical pot is legal should get a license and grow it. Just tell the “Doc” you need it for depression, what with the Iraq war and all. It’s true, isn’t it? Stand up for your rights! If everybody does it they will never stop us!  We’re winning! We won’t stop until pot is growing out of every crack in the sidewalk! We’ll make it the state flower!
We shall overrun!!! Grade school children can pick and smoke pure herb instead of taking Ritalin!!! We will all be happy hippies living in The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave again!!!
        ALL YOU NEED IS WEED!!!!!!

This is a no-brainer. Legalize it, control it, tax it.
When Prohibition didn’t work the Government reversed the “No Booze” article.

In a Country where State and local governments promote addictions like gambling and drinking and to a certain extent smoking, why not legalize pot?
Oh I never smoked the stuff, but many obviously do.

I’m not a pot smoker but I do support legalization.  However, the figures presented here - though sensational - are pretty much worthless. 

Using the estimate that the marijuana crop is worth over $35 billion and it’s the largest cash crop in the US can’t really be used as an argument for legalization because the cash value of marijuana is artificially inflated because of the very fact that it is illegal (the conservative figure of $1600/pound was used in the study). 

I’m no expert, but according to figures on this page (http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/September03/Features/USTobaccoIndustry.htm), the value of tobacco in 2002 was well below $2/pound.  If marijuana was legal, the cash value of the crop would be a tiny fraction of the more than $35 billion estimated by the study.  If you go with $10/pound (more than 5 times the price for tobacco), the cash crop is suddenly worth only around $22 million, a figure almost meaningless to agriculture in the United States.