REPORT ESTIMATES CASH VALUE OF MARIJUANA CROP

For years, activists in the marijuana legalization movement have
claimed that cannabis is America's biggest cash crop. Now they're
citing government statistics to prove it.

A report released Monday by a marijuana public policy analyst contends
that the market value of pot produced in the United States exceeds $35
billion -- far more than the crop value of such heartland staples as
corn, soybeans and hay.

California is responsible for more than one-third of the cannabis
harvest, with an estimated production of $13.8 billion.

The report estimates that marijuana production has increased tenfold
in the past quarter-century despite an anti-drug effort by law
enforcement.

Jon Gettman, the report's author, is a public policy consultant and
leading proponent of the push to drop marijuana from the federal list
of hard-core Schedule 1 drugs, such as heroin and LSD.

While withholding judgment on the study's findings, federal anti-drug
officials took exception to Gettman's conclusions.

"Coca is Colombia's largest cash crop, and that hasn't worked out for
them," said Tom Riley, a spokesman for the White House Office of
National Drug Control Policy.