Netherlands cannabis growers yearly net $2.7b

Agence France-Presse
Published: Saturday October 18, 2008

THE HAGUE (AFP) – Clandestine cannabis growers in the Netherlands net two billion euros (2.7 billion dollars) a year -- worth almost half the country's horticultural sector -- a Dutch newspaper reported on Saturday.

By comparison, according to NRC Handelsblad, country's horticultural sector generates about 5.5 billion euros in annual income.

"There is major demand from England, Belgium, Germany, France, the Scandinavian countries and at the moment the Baltic countries," Max Daniel, the senior police officer who heads the Dutch agency charged with combatting cannabis-growing, told the newspaper.

Police investigations suggested that about 500 tonnes of Dutch cannabis were exported each year.

"We know that at least 80 percent of production is for export. In the Netherlands there are 400,000 users of the drug and of hashish. If it was only them, the problem would be entirely manageable," Daniel said.

"We still have the image of the small producer who grows a few plants in his attic to pay for his holidays in Benidorm (in southern Spain)," but the reality was quite different, Daniel told the newspaper, alluding to "professionals".

He thought the cannabis trade could be found behind most major murder, arms trafficking and drugs cases.

He quoted police sources as suggesting that banks were lending to growers, and that laboratories had ties to universities to increase production.

In July, the Dutch government set up a committee to examine and coordinate the fight against cannabis production, an activity in constant growth and increasingly professionalised.

if we legalized marijuana, we would lose money. it would all go to the growers in mexico and south america.

If America legalized it that is not where the money would go! It would be going to every "herbman" that's already out their growing his own strain in his basement. We would save money by not having to pay the 20-some thousand dollars a year of taxpayer money to house and feed non-violent offenders who's only offense has been catching a little buzz...not to mention all of the economic, environmental, and medical uses for hemp and cannabis.......................

You got it!

Besides, all you have to do is slap a tariff, a big one, on any imported pot.

Another cute side effect is that it would be an instant cash crop for the family farm.

The new word on the line is that Pot can treat Marsis Staff infection..

Ok look there are plenty of people growin it here in the states and pleanty of empty government owned land to grow it. Regulate it like you do Beer a certain age to buy it a tax on it so on so forth..the growers the processers the packers...Jobs and money


Just a thought from
Wiccancowboy

LEGALIZE>>>>EDUCATE>>>>MEDICATE



free your mind

I got through high school cause of it...

i reckon im too knowledgeble...killed it again

this country was founded on hemp... #1 cash crop in america in the early years and for good reason.. look it up..

we spend billions on the prohibition for pot. If we legalize it,and tax it, think of the saved money... Would be nice to donate those billions to privitized schools...

I agree..Grow it, Tax it and use the by products for bio fuel..A win Win situation.. I dont even smoke it!!!!

Hell yeah, hemp makes the most efficient ethanol. And the best part is it wont jack up the cost of food during the process... Nifty huh? I see NO downside...

False information, built up by media to justify black ops, DEA and other such nonsense...

most of the best MJ is grown right here in the good ol US of A.

I saw on the history channel that not only is this true but cocaine is half supplied right from here too.

Aye and most of the so called designer drugs.

Completely off topic, but you wanna know what i saw on the history channel? There is a group consisting of a world elite. They are called The Buildiberg group (they dont have a real name). They have supposedly been manipulating wars for a century or two... Guess who's in it... The Rockefeller family, the Clintons, and the Bushes, etc... They also mentioned that the Clintons and Bushes are friends. And all these people, democrats and republicans, are pushing for a "New World Order". One centralized government worldwide, population 500 million or less, one world religion, everyone gets tracking chips installed, etc. This, i kid you not, was on the history channel....

Whether or not this is true, it was still on the history channel.

And besides, where we might lose some money to other countries, we would gain so much more by cutting the billions spend on combating the problem...