Pot Economy Hits Record High

Evidently, bong hits help people forget about the recession... and line their pockets. Driven by strict border control stemming the flow of drugs from Mexico, the demand for domestically grown marijuana is at a record high, the Associated Press reports. Police have destroyed plants worth $12 billion in the nation's weed-growing hot beds of California and Appalachia. According to the head of marijuana eradication for the Office of Drug Control Policy's Appalachian High Density Drug Trafficking Area, the recession has hit Appalachia "more severely than the rest of the country" and for longer, and is causing locals to supplement their income with plots of marijuana. The recession doesn't mean fewer buyers either—the demand for marijuana appears to rise with the unemployment rate.