FROM THE LAND HIGH UNDER?

Australia's reputation as a nation of big drinkers is going up in smoke.
Researchers at the University of Western Australia's Economic Research
Center have found that Australians spend almost as much on illegal cannabis
as they do on their beloved beer and twice as much as they do on wine.

"Expenditure on marijuana in 1995 was a little over $5 billion in
Australian currency (U.S. $3.25 billion) or $351 (Australian) per capita,"
said researchers Professor Ken Clements and Mert Daryal in a paper, "The
Economics of Marijuana Consumption."

The estimated marijuana expenditure was equivalent to 1 percent of
Australia's 1995 gross domestic product, far higher than was previously
estimated.

It represented double the expenditure on wine and three-quarters of the
money spent on beer.