There Is Nothing “Green”
About This Stuff
The culture around weed is different than other drugs, in many ways. One of the ways it differs from, say, meth is that it is “just a plant” and attracts people who dig plants more than highly processed drugs that are destructive to their bodies and the environment. Do you see where I’m going with this?
In decades past, people grew a little weed and they grew it in climates and locations favorable for its cultivation. Northern California was a hotbed, as was Mexico, the Caribbean, and other similar places. There were issues, of course, when drug cartels would take over public land for big grow operations and poison the ground and water with fertilizers and pesticides. Fortunately, those were few and far between. Weed farmers shipped out some of their crop to places like Colorado, for instance, so people could get high. Growing a few plants in the back yard garden has been the norm for generations. But things have changed.
We’re going to look at several areas of environmental concern in this chapter but it basically boils down to a few things:
Pot doesn’t grow naturally in many of the places we are growing it.
This giant industry has no environmental safeguards.
Weed is water and power hungry.
Many commercial growers don’t give a crap about anything other than the bottom line.
I believe that some of what follows will be a big enough shock that even dedicated users will second guess their support for commercialization. We are doing so little to protect resources for future generations to begin with, and it blows my mind that so many people who are in tune with the environmental movement can so easily endorse commercially produced THC. Some priorities need closer scrutiny.
A number of recent studies/reports on this topic have seemed to fly totally under the world’s radar. It’s time to start looking at this issue from all sides to determine if this is the direction we really want to go as a country. How so many people can turn a blind eye to the damage we are doing at so many levels is nuts.
The Obama administration did much to improve our environment but if current and future administrations aren’t careful, this issue could erase the gains made elsewhere. Driving a hybrid is good but putting an end to thoughtless and damaging corporate practices is better. The impact we are having on our planet by allowing commercial THC to go unchecked is real, and if you choose to support The Industry you should know what you’re doing. We’re talking about establishing another huge industry, like tobacco and alcohol, that will always put profits ahead of the community and the planet. Because there is so much money to be made, it will not take limitations lying down.
Water
First things first, Southern California was in the middle of a major drought when I started writing this book. I travel to this region a few times a year for work and was there during the time when there were major water restrictions in place. While many states have lawn-watering restrictions, the drought had reached such a critical stage that they even had showering regulations. It was a bit of a personal challenge to do the sub-three-minute shower they recommended for residents when I visited. It’s harder than it sounds. Basically, you can’t wait for the water to get hot or you’ve already wasted precious time (and water) so you hop in cold and get wet, then you kill the water. You lather up and get your hair all shampooed then turn the water back on to rinse off. Fortunately, the last hotel I was in had awesome hot water so I was totally warm by the rinse—but that wasn’t always the case! While inconvenient, these kinds of regulations are absolutely necessary in such an arid environment and during those extraordinary conditions. Last year, I was there when they stopped giving out water at restaurants unless you specifically asked for it. Signs were posted everywhere saying how water was being conserved; it was kind of wild. There were actually stores springing up that sold turf grass because the watering restrictions were so severe that it was impossible to grow a lawn. They even had some kind of 1984-esque water reporting hotline where you could turn your neighbors in for wasting water!
California also has the second largest commercial weed industry in the country (after Colorado of course) and it’s centered in Southern Cal. While the old hippie pot farmers grew their weed in Northern California, the commercial business is now mostly in the South. Californians love their weed but weed loves water. It is a very thirsty plant that consumes a ton of water. I spent a long time looking over grow sites and even a few official reports and people swear different things so there is a lot of variation in what people say weed uses. While one wants to be careful when the plant is young not to over water, when it is mature, the average weed plant probably uses between two and five liters of water each day. Compared with human consumption, The Institute of Medicine says that an average adult male needs to drink about three liters of water a day. While the science isn’t exact I like the simplicity of considering each weed plant growing in California as another person sucking water up, it’s a good visual. Considering that there are huge grow operations that house hundreds of thousands of plants in one warehouse, let’s stop for a second to consider where the good people of California have allowed their priorities to be placed:
As a Coloradan, I get how it must feel for the people who were there in the days of pre-industrial weed. They are living in a different world now, one that gives more attention to getting high than showering.
There is plenty to read on this subject if you’re interested. Start with the article written by Brittany Patterson published in Scientific American in July 2015 entitled, “Sucking Rivers Dry.” For those of you somewhat familiar with weed in America, you know that Humboldt County, in coastal Northern California, is a historical pot-growing community that boasts some of the best weed on Earth. It’s a pretty big part of the culture there. In one article, county native and sheriff Tom Allman is quoted as saying, “Old hippies are not the problem, the problem is twenty-year-olds with a sore shoulder who want to make $1 million a year.” He is, of course, referencing California’s “medical” marijuana market because that’s all they have there, at the time of this writing. Recreational retail sales begin on January 1, 2018.
Back in 2010, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) ran a story called, “Pot: Not So Green After All?” It reported that 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel had spilled into one stream alone from a pot grow.
In a study published in the journal Bioscience on July 15, 2014, entitled, “High Time for Conservation: Adding the Environment to the Debate on Marijuana Liberalization,” the authors discuss water issues in detail:
The liberalization of marijuana policies, including the legalization of medical and recreational marijuana, is sweeping the United States and other countries. Marijuana cultivation can have significant negative collateral effects on the environment that are often unknown or overlooked. Focusing on the state of California, where by some estimates 60 percent–70 percent of the marijuana consumed in the United States is grown, we argue that (a) the environmental harm caused by marijuana cultivation merits a direct policy response, (b) current approaches to governing the environmental effects are inadequate, and (c) neglecting discussion of the environmental impacts of cultivation when shaping future marijuana use and possession policies represents a missed opportunity to reduce, regulate, and mitigate environmental harm.
I couldn’t agree more with them when they say that the environmental harm merits a direct policy response. If we are going to move in this direction let’s not miss the opportunity to make The Industry play by the same rules that everyone else must follow, and to tell this side of the story to voters before asking them to decide on the future of their state by relying on sound bites created and written by The Industry.
Power
According to a study published in the journal Energy Policy in 20121, growing weed takes upwards of 1 percent of the energy produced in the United States. Keep in mind, this was before commercialization here in Colorado, and in a few other states where they were basically just talking about underground and “medical” weed. The study also finds that for every kilogram of weed produced in the United States, an estimated 4,600 kilograms of carbon dioxide is released into the environment. Burning one liter of diesel fuel releases about 2.6 kilograms of carbon; that works out to 1,769 liters of diesel fuel burned for every kilo of weed.
Xcel Energy is the largest supplier of power to Colorado, producing about 60 percent of the power sold in the state. In August 2014, their spokesman was quoted as saying that legal grows were consuming .5 to 1 percent of all of the power generated in the state, again, this is before the commercial market really exploded. The reasons why it is so intensive are simple. Allowing plants to grow around the clock means they can be taken to market faster. We’re back to the money! To grow around the clock, one must use really intense lights that get very, very hot. To mitigate that heat, grows need fans and ventilation systems to clear all of that hot air out of their warehouses. All of those things use power—and lots of it.
If we had an infinite supply of power in the world this wouldn’t be a big issue; the growers will pay for the power use, and everyone would be happy. As with everything, it’s not quite that simple. Power has to be made somehow. In Colorado we get two-thirds of our power by burning coal and another 20 percent from burning natural gas. That means that 86 percent of our power is created by burning non-renewable resources—things that we can’t get back—and that are bad for the environment because they release greenhouse-causing gasses. Is growing weed the best use of those finite resources?
Like many of you, I am eagerly awaiting the power consumption data from post industrialization. Unless I’m way off the mark, those numbers will be pretty sobering for those of us who are concerned with the well-being of the environment.
Pesticides
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, much of the environmental impact from commercially grown weed has been kept under wraps. However, what has been particularly frightening in Colorado are all of the state-issued recalls over pesticides found in THC products. As explained earlier, because we can’t rely on the federal government for help, we are left to figure this stuff out on our own. Consequently, I’m sure that plenty is falling between the cracks. Even with that said, this has been a huge issue and gets plenty of press in Colorado.
It’s pretty obvious why using pesticides in the production of weed—a plant being grown for people to eat, drink, and smoke—is a bad idea. Chemicals that are bad for our bodies to touch are even worse for our bodies to ingest or inhale.
Clearly, there is an issue using products that are banned by the FDA to grow potted plants in the cultivation of weed. Maybe the easiest way to elaborate about this would be to give you the list of products that have been recalled in Colorado recently because they tested positive for banned pesticides. While I would love to do that, the list is just too long and wouldn’t fit anywhere nice, so here is a quick sample:
Mountain High Suckers recalled 99,574 pieces of THC candy in December 2015.
Open Vape recalled an “undetermined” amount of individual units including a few fun strains like Crack Dawg and Cherry Durban Poison.
Advanced Medical Alternatives had to recall a bunch of wax because it was full of banned pesticides.
EdiPure had to recall 32,125 individual units of approximately 23 different gummy and hard candy products including such favorites as Rainbow Belts, Orange Cream Licorice, Sour Gummy Bears, and Cherry Bombs
The list goes on as long as one would care to search, but my favorite has to be from The Farm. This Boulder-based manufacturer is all about doing “craft cannabis” organically and well.
Craft cannabis, not exactly pesticide-free
As we are about to learn, The Farm isn’t pesticide-free as advertised on the next page, kinda makes me wonder how gluten-free it actually is. Is the definition of gluten-free being used here the FDA standard of the definition, or just a familiar phrase we assume to be true as natural and healthy?
In a recent recall, The Farm was forced to recall sixteen batches of marijuana that tested positive for ivermectin and thirty-six batches of the “headquarter” strain of cannabis that tested positive for spiromesifen. The product in the first recall contains something called ivermectin that is used to kill head lice and scabies. Spiromesifen is used to control a few pests in “ornamental plants,” not things you typically smoke. The good people at The Farm, who are so committed to your health and the environment, just got busted spraying their weed with banned pesticides. You can’t make this stuff up!
Although there are some exceptions, from what I can tell society as a whole has gotten smarter when it comes to realizing our environmental impact and the importance of protecting our planet and our scarce natural resources. As a result, laws are changing and, more importantly, our habits are changing as well. We ask questions about how our food is grown and prepared, we walk and bike when we can, and are actually paying attention to our power usage as well as our fuel consumption. But then along comes weed. We seem to be so enamored with the idea of commercialized weed that we haven’t stopped to ask if what we are doing is good for society, our bodies, or the planet. Maybe those are a few of the areas we should consider more closely in the future.
1 “The Carbon Footprint of Indoor Cannabis Production,” Evan Mills, March, 17, 2012.