Cash Crop

Marijuana is the number one cash crop in the state of California. The report was put together by a medical marijuana advocacy group, so pass the salt. But even if marijuana is not actually number one, I doubt that the study is so biased that it takes a nowhere crop and just sticks it at the top. In other words, marijuana is towards the top of the list in a state that produces a lot of agricultural goods. One thing I question, though, is this sentiment, which I do attribute to a bit of an agenda:

"Agriculturally, it's worth the same as alfalfa, which is six cents a pound right now, which would make the total crop, if it wasn't illegal, about 1.3 million as opposed to 35 billion."

Perhaps the fact that's it's illegal is inflating the cost, but an increase by a factor of 27,000 seems a bit high. That's gotta be a typo. They must have meant 1.3 billion. Even then, I'm skeptical. I'd imagine that cannabis would be a tad more lucrative than alfafa. Cannabis is, after all, a remarkably useful plant. I think that many medical marijuana advocates purposely play down the recreational side to the substance to avoid scaring off would-be supporters. Which is understandable, I suppose, but nevertheless strange, since no one ever feels the need to play down the recreational side (hey, wait, that's the only side there is!) of alcohol.

On that note, I was encouraged to see this particular phraseology in the piece:

Anti-prohibition advocates say classifying marijuana as illegal is the problem.

Glad to see they're calling a spade a spade.