By Chris Nuttall-Smith, The Ottawa Citizen Source: Ottawa Citizen Forbes, the U.S. business magazine, has chosen to celebrate Canada's economy on its latest cover, but it's a segment of the economy that chamber of commerce officials and Canadian law aren't as happy to extol. The marijuana industry "has emerged as Canada's most valuable agricultural product -- bigger than wheat, cattle or timber," Forbes' Silicon Valley bureau chief writes in a cover feature called Inside Dope: Canada's dirty, well-lit marijuana trade is rich, expanding ... and unstoppable. "With prices reaching $2,700 a pound wholesale, the trade takes in somewhere between $4 billion (in U.S. dollars) nationwide and $7 billion just in the province of British Columbia, depending on which side of the law you believe." John Winter, president of B.C.'s chamber of commerce, said yesterday he hadn't seen the Forbes article, but he wondered how the publicity might affect B.C.'s investment climate. "If you're a potential investor in British Columbia, you're going to look at many factors and, presumably, that is now one of the factors you might look at. Whether it's considered to be negative or whether it's indicative of entrepreneurship -- I'm not sure -- whether it's considered negative or positive." B.C.'s economy is worth $140 billion Cdn annually; farm produce and livestock sales total just $2.2 billion. Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/hails.htm Newshawk: Kegan Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Author: Chris Nuttall-Smith, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 Copyright: 2003 The Ottawa Citizen Contact: letters@thecitizen.canwest.com Website: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/