Just another reminder that one of the many victims of collateral damage in the war on drugs is the earth.
Rat poison, malathion, garbage bags filled with waste and miles of PVC piping.
These are just a few of the items left behind after people growing marijuana illegally on public lands either harvest their crops or flee when law enforcement discovers them, officials say.
It’s not just the garbage. Public lands are torn up and dramatically changed at these pot-growing sites, where those who tend them live out in the woods for months at a time. They terrace hillsides, divert streams, build man-made ponds and cut down saplings for shelter or cover.
The Wenatchee World piece excerpted above toes the usual quote-the-cops-who-talk-public-safety line, but it also reminds us (by way of messed up streams and dead moose) that forcing growers out into the wild does more than fuck up our society. It also fucks up our environment. It doesn’t matter if it comes from major logging operations, friendly neighborhood farmers, or clandestine pot growers. Diverting streams and terracing hillsides is really bad for forests, especially the fire prone ones in Central and Eastern Washington whose fish habitat is already on its last legs.
Think of the salmon!
Yeah, it’d be nice if they didn’t have to hide their growing operations out there, but at the same time, they don’t have to be running growing operations at all, so all those poor hemp farmers “forced” to litter up public lands are as culpable as anybody.
So I guess this means that all the eco-freaks out there are gonna stop doing drugs now, right?
Yeah, I won’t hold my breath.
@1 Well, yeah, same could be said about logging operations or anything that destroys forest land. But the fact is that the money-making potential and unrelenting demand for cannabis make it unrealistic to expect that everyone will stop growing it for the sake of preserving public lands. For the sake of the environment we can wish it wouldn’t happen, but it does happen and it will continue to happen in spite of our wishing…unless we can arrive at a direction (legalization) that removes the need and rationale for clandestine growing operations in national forests.
@1: Were the people making hooch during Prohibition, the same guys that work at Red Hook ? Twat.
@2: Haha. You’re such a cop, but I love ya. Keep it up :p
Besides that the people against all “illegal drugs” don’t give much of a shit about the environment, I think you’re trying to reach the wrong demographic here.
Buy local.
Seriously, why are we importing MJ from vast distances when we could grow it locally using abundant local resources and provide local jobs, while cutting global warming emissions and using valuable prison space?
It makes zero sense.
On the other hand, I really do like French wines and Caribbean rum, so I guess being a bit of a hypocrite about one’s drug of choice is par for the course.
@7 this is washington state, we already grow & buy it locally!
@8 – no, the point is when you decrim it, then people switch to more sustainable grow ops.
Like, say, in Cali. Or BC.
We should be growing and exporting it. Let’s get America working again!
So what. Meth is also an eco-disaster. If you legalize it you won’t be able to do anything about it when fucking scums are making it or using it next door to you. You ok with that? There will still be meth labs. No company would risk the liability or PR of selling a lethal non-presription drug to scum meth users. Do you really think it would show up at Walgreens if it were legal.
Well, Meth always is a disaster, not just in producing it, but in consuming it.
If it was legal, though, Walgreens would sell it.
“So what. Meth is also an eco-disaster. If you legalize it you won’t be able to do anything about it when fucking scums are making it or using it next door to you. You ok with that?”
Irrelevant, asinine.
@ 12,
Nope. It’s a good point. Most (illegal) drugs are hard on the environment to produce, not just MJ. If you legalize one to ‘save’ the environment, they’ll still be a whole slew of drugs you wouldn’t want to legalize, and the persons making a huge profit off MJ will just switch to selling a different product. They’re business people. They’re in it for the money. They’ll get money at any cost and to hell with the consequences. They’re much like the Bush family and oil. Now that oil is on the wain, former oilmen like T. Boone Pickens, who famously swift-boated Kerry, are pushing ‘green’ energy (on public lands no less). He’s not doing that for the goodness of his heart and his love of nature, he’s doing it for $$$$$.
@12: True, but that doesn’t negate the fact that most of the problems (social and environmental), associated with these things are caused by their very illegality. Legalise it, tax it, regulate production, and provide sane recovery programs like we do booze and ciggies.
There will always be outlaws. People willing to take high risks for a high return, with little care of the cost. But the law of diminishing returns kicks in if we take away the easy ways to run an illegal business 🙂