CANNABIS THE TOP CASH CROP IN NZ'S FAR NORTH -STUDY

AUCKLAND, June 3 (Reuters) - Cannabis growing in New Zealand's Northland
province may exceed dairying as a cash crop, according to a study released
on Wednesday by the University of Auckland.

The study said recently published estimates put the street value of cannabis
seized each year by the police at between NZ$140-$700 million ($74-368 million).

``If you apply the rather optimistic assumption that the police manage to
recover half of the annual crop, then clearly the industry is worth a great
deal of money, probably more than the region's dairy industry,'' the report,
compiled by the university's geography department, said.

Professor Chris Cocklin, one of the report's authors, said data from the
National Drugs Investigation Bureau showed that about a quarter of all
cannabis seized nationally was grown in Northland, in the extreme north of
the country.

``The fact that this region is a major producer of the crop is reflected
also in the fact that offences for cultivation represent a much higher
proportion of drug-related offences than anywhere in the country,'' said
Cocklin, who now works at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Maori leader Sir Graham Latimer caused a furore when he said in April that
the government should stop ``monkeying around'' and either legalise cannabis
or provide long-term employment opportunities for people in his home province.

``If it cannot provide the jobs, it should provide the marijuana,'' he said.

Latimer said cannabis had become more an issue of ``making ends meet than it
is about getting high.''

Cocklin said cannabis growing was providing an important flow of money in
the region.

``There seems to be no doubt that cannabis in Northland is an important part
of the economy and this will be the case whether it is legalised or not.

``To be sure, the violence or threats of it would disappear to an extent if
it was legalised,'' Cocklin said.

Northland's growth rates have scored highly in the National Bank's regional
economic surveys, but an economist at the bank said that was more due to
population growth as people migrate to the north's warmer climate.

``It's made the economic pie bigger and there are more people there getting
the same sized slice,'' bank economist Stephen Edwards told Reuters.

He said the study's findings seemed excessive.

``If they're saying it's NZ$700 million, then that would be a good quarter
of the region's GDP is tied up in cannabis production, which seems too high
to me,'' he told Reuters.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett