I was too high on the holidays (pun) and missed this story published on Christmas day.

The Tri-City Herald reports that “Washington is among the top five pot-producing states, producing a $1 billion-a-year crop that is second in value only to the state's famed apple harvest.” But that’s not all, (drumroll, please) marijuana is now “the biggest cash crop in the United States, bringing in more annually than corn and wheat combined.”

Yep. The Tri-City Herald article is based on public-policy researcher Jon Gettman’s newest report, which positions the U.S. government’s multi-bazillion dollar effort to control marijuana cultivation and trafficking as a total waste.

“Marijuana has become a pervasive and ineradicable part of the economy of the United States,” Gettman says. “The focus of public policy should be how to effectively control this market through regulation and taxation in order to achieve immediate and realistic goals, such as reducing teenage access.” (Read: legalize it.)