Portland Daily Sun, 15 Mar 2013 – Years ago advocates for the legalization of marijuana were fond of citing the fact the marijuana was the second largest cash crop in the United States, corn being the first. Wanting to verify that, I did some checking and found that it’s no longer true. Come to find out, in spite of years of government eradication efforts, marijuana is now the largest cash crop in the country, exceeding the combined value of the corn and wheat crops by $5 billion annually. Except in the two states where it’s legal, Colorado and Washington, our nation’s laws guarantee that 100 percent of the proceeds from what is by far the largest cash crop in the country go to criminals rather than to legitimate businesses that pay taxes. When the story of the marijuana trade comes to light we’ll find that it makes the criminal activity generated by Prohibition look minicule in comparision. One doesn’t get a gram of weed from Panama to a small-time dealer