100 million Americans say yes to marijuana

19 May, 2009, 02:28

A legal battle has broken out over a Californian law permitting the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Supporters of legalization say the drug helps to relieve pain and may have huge financial benefit for the country.

A pro-pot advocate in Washington, Aaron Houston, who is the Director of Government Relations for the Marijuana Policy Project, said marijuana is America’s largest cost crop. It is bigger than corn and wheat combined with a value of about $36 billion per year; and if marijuana wholesale is legalized, not just for medical purposes, the US would make between $14 and $40 billion from the drug.

“There are 13 US states that have legalized medical marijuana but there are about 100 million Americans using marijuana and those people want to admit to government’s survey takers that they have used it,” Houston said.

“Clearly, when we have 100 million people saying they used it to government survey takers it probably would stand to reason. But that number is actually higher because certain people just do not want to tell someone from the government that they have used marijuana, a kind of illegal substance,” he said.