Washington, Mar. 27 President Barack Obama has told an online crowd that legalizing marijuana won't do any good to the sinking American economy.

Obama was drawn into the debate over legalizing pot when the cannabis crowd flooded the first-ever Internet-based presidential Town Hall meeting.

"The answer is no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy," Obama said with a laugh when asked if he would legalize the wacky terbacky.

The pot legalization issue is not a frivolous one. California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano introduced a bill calling for legalizing the drug and regulating it in much the same way alcohol is regulated. The California Board of Equalization, which collects taxes, estimates California's possible revenue from doing so at 1.3 billion dollars per year.

During rest of the forum, Obama continued to talk about his plans to fix the economy - including what he said would be a "painful" and "drastic" restructuring of the U.S. auto industry.

"We will provide them with some help. I know that it is not popular to provide help to autoworkers, or to auto companies. But my job is to measure the cost of allowing these auto companies just to collapse, versus us figuring out can they come up with a viable plan?" (ANI)