Greenhouse grows are environmentally friendly and incredibly easy to do even in poorly suited zones.
how much are these growing techniques a reaction to the legal status of marijuana? when/where it’s legal are farmers able to pursue more sustainable behavior (and do they?)?
Perhaps the most compelling argument for legalization is appropriate oversight.
Peter Tosh has the answer: Legalize It.
All of my weed is locally sourced from sustainable conditions. Illegal, but sustainable.
Good point Autark.
All of this seems to be damage caused by growing techniques that came about due to prohibition.
They’re also more likely to get noticed. As the article and others here have alluded, it’s not a problem with the conditions needed for growing the plant per se so much as the conditions created when people grow it in secrecy.
The article forgot to mention the environmental damage caused by countless empty Doritos bags strewn about like confetti…
Absolutely. The environment is just another piece of “collateral damage” in the insane and ineffective WOD.
(My favorite irony which is trotted out all the time by drug warriors, totally missing the irony, is the whole “this isn’t the same weed you were smoking in the 70’s!” bullshit. If weed has gotten stronger it’s a whole 'nother failure of the WOD, in which you’ve taken something that you claim was relatively safe and made it into something that you claim is dangerous. (It’s a bogus line of reasoning, but still…))
Just legalize, for Fuck’s sake!
Yep, indeed. Just look at this quote from the article:
The following year, researchers surveying northern spotted owls on Humboldt County’s Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation were shot at with high-caliber rifles. Each growing season, a significant chunk of one designated fisher habitat in the Sierra National Forest becomes inaccessible to scientists because it’s dangerously close to illegal gardens.
Gabriel won’t go near a known grow site before it’s been cleared by law enforcement, as Bear Camp has. Scattered across the hillside, his team finds 4,200 pounds of chemical fertilizer, five kinds of insecticide, and three kinds of rodenticide. The stash includes a restricted pesticide capable of killing humans in small doses.
Instead of chasing down these idiots that are obviously violating agricultural regulations, park rangers are forced to bust kids smoking doobies sitting around the campfire. The author of the article really needed to make it clear that resources are being diverted from shutting down these grows to other, stupider pursuits, like making sure Joe Schmo doesn’t grow a plant in his backyard.
This is yet another very compelling to decriminalize/legalize Marijuana. All of the destructive aspects of growing pot are related to the need for secrecy, if it were just another crop on a farm, no problems.
Well, there’s a hell of a lot of environmental damage done by legal agribusiness, too, but at least there’d be some legal guidelines, etc.
That’s funny…EVERYONE I know who uses marijuana is extremely concerned about where it came from, how it was grown, and if pesticides were used or not…they go out of their way to purchase weed that they know was grown responsibly.
Just allow individuals to grow their own in their backyards…no need for oversight.
If it is going to be legalized, it will be industrialized, and industrialized agriculture needs responsible oversight, mannn
While I think this is a good reason for legalization, there’s a part of me that is… not willing to let people off the hook for the consequences of their choices. Just as with the drug violence in Mexico, just as with the environmental problems, there are far too many people who don’t really care who or what gets hurt further up the supply chain. (this is obviously not limited to illegal drugs).
And fucking hell, this: “In Lost Coast Outpost and other local news sites, commenters shared links to his home address. “Snitches end up in ditches,” one warned.” is despicable. That goes beyond even the evil of wishful ignorance.
Hydro all the way, yo
I just got back from the Golden Triangle. People are very concerned with the environment in that area. They question newcomers and communities will self-police bad enviromentally-unfriendly growers and drive them out of the area. The actual problem is cartels and mobsters doing illegal ops in the parks. This is because of the useless laws governing production and sales. Change the laws, and envirnomentally-damaging grows will go away. It’s the idiocracy of the Federal government doing this, not the growers.
yes exactly! Mass farming and factoring farming to farm more damage to the environment than the sporadic illegal grow. Let’s worry about fertilized runoff and out of control GMO first, huh?
