Paul Reeves for Congress – Nevada Congressional District 2

Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday became the first city in the United States to assess a tax on marijuana. [ABC News]

Clerk Intermittent Chun Lin organizes ballots from Oakland’s mail-in election inside the Registrar of Voters office on Tuesday, July 21, 2009 in Oakland, Calif. Oakland residents voted for a first-of-its kind measure that will impose a new tax on medical marijuana sold at the city’s four dispensaries.  (The Oakland Tribune, Sean Donnelly/AP Photo)

Marijuana is the top cash crop in America according to a 2006 study.

The study estimates that marijuana production, at a value of $35.8 billion, exceeds the combined value of corn ($23.3 billion) and wheat ($7.5 billion).

And that is after three decades of governmental eradication efforts… “our present marijuana laws are a complete failure,” says Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington D.C., a group that focuses on removing criminal penalties for marijuana use.

Harvard visiting professor Jeffrey Miron estimates that if the United States legalized marijuana, the country would save $7.7 billion in law enforcement costs and could generated as much as $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like alcohol or tobacco.

Not only that but what if the Town of Pahrump and the Nye County Commissioners followed Oakland’s example?