Back in July, I did a blog entry looking at how there was a push to legalize marijuana in California to get that state out of the pits.

California is the trend-setting state of the US, so it's not surprising to read reports that struggling entrepreneurs are now growing bumper crops of dope to make ends meet around the country.

In California, the nation's top marijuana-growing state, seizures are soaring and in Washington, they have nearly doubled over the last 12 months. Growers in a three-state region of central Appalachia also appear to have reversed a decline in pot cultivation over the last two years. Plants with a jaw dropping street value of $12 billion (that's a lot of plants) have been chopped down this year and police are blaming it on the economy. More to the point, they say demand seems to be rising with growing unemployment.

Indeed, the Christian Science Monitor points out, rising unemployment seems to have given the dope trade some impetus. As the City File blog says, marijuana is now America's only growth industry and it's easy why to see why people turn to it when they're unemployed. What else are they going to do when they're sitting on the couch all day watching TV?