By The Numbers

The Numbers for Wednesday, October 23: Black market green

Shea Huffman Oct 23, 2013
58%

The percentage of Americans who support marijuana legalization, the first time a clear majority of the U.S. supports the reform, according to a new Gallup poll. Experts estimate that annual marijuana sales (including illegal sales) add up to about $20 billion, with $1.5 billion a year coming from the growing medical pot industry. (Gallup)

30%

The percent of the world’s timber that Interpol estimates is illegally poached. According to reporters who have researched the topic, illegal logging has had a devastating impact on forests around the world, like in Russia, as workers desperate to feed their families cut down more trees than are sustainable. (Marketplace)

$55,000

The rough amount of assets Japan’s Financial Services Agency froze in a move to separate the Yakuza (Japan’s organized crime syndicate) from their money. The frozen assets include two Japan-issued American Express cards and according to an article from Bloomberg, “adds to pressure from Yakuza-exclusion ordinances enacted nationwide in 2011 making it illegal to do business with gang members, as well as a U.S. executive order that year requiring financial institutions to freeze Yakuza assets.” The strategy is working, too, as Yakuza membership dropped 11 percent in 2011. (Bloomberg)

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