Like gun control, supporting the legalization of weed or even the growing of hemp is tantamount to political kryptonite for our elected officials, so it’s kind of understandable why President Obama jokingly dismisses the issue whenever he’s asked about it, which is a shame, because producing cannabis and hemp is absolutely an industry that America could innovate, if given the chance.

Sadly, that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon. For the second time, Obama agreed to sit down and answer questions from YouTube users and once again, the most pressing matter on the majority of people’s minds had to do with ending the prohibition of pot. And I’m not just talking the weirdos in character with funny voices and masks on, but nerdy, ex-law enforcement types too, like this guy who asked the president about legalization. Barry-O gave a predictably lame response, but at least he didn’t just chuckle like he’s been know to do… so progress?:

There is a good reason why so many people in this country are interested in weed, we’re good at it. While it’s true that Holland has made huge advancements in hydroponics and other outdoor growing techniques, as has Switzerland and Spain, the USA is still the best at advancing new strains and cultivating some of the best chronic in the world. It really is the nation’s #1 cash crop, but instead of embracing its benefits, we prohibit it and then wonder why we’re broke. Nowadays, the country mostly manufactures debt and yet there’s a historic agricultural tradition that is being completely ignored. And that’s just talking cannabis.

Hemp is another wonder crop that could help revitalize sectors of the nation’s economy yet, by order of the DEA, its been deemed illegal. Yup, the same plant that the federal government encouraged farmers to grow during the 1940s as a patriotic act to help with the war effort was reclassified to be a drug because it contains trace amounts of THC. To keep things in perspective, you could smoke pounds of it and would be more likely to get a headache than a high, but the DEA refuses to budge, forcing American companies to import it from other nations like Canada, Hungary and China when we could be growing it right here at home, just like the founding fathers proudly did. And to not do so is as a threat to national security.

You see, unlike corn-based ethanol, bio-fuels from hemp won’t affect food prices, can be grown in any state, and doesn’t take nearly as many resources. It’s basically the one crop that can move this country forward in the agricultural sector, the car industry and especially in the production of green energy. If President Obama truly believes this our “our generation’s Sputnik moment,” he needs to seriously consider greenlighting both cannabis and hemp, the country is fueled and ready to launch!