The Benefits To Legalizing Pot You Haven't Heard About

[Forkbender]

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The Benefits To Legalizing Pot You Haven't Heard About

The war on drugs may be a noble intention, but the illegal growing of marijuana is destroying our environment and we need to step in.

Primarily run by Mexican drug cartels in the fields of California -- marijuana is the state's largest cash crop generating nearly $14 billion a year -- the marijuana growers aren't your typical peace-loving hippies of the 70s. Hundred KW generators, diesel storage tanks, ATV vehicles and large quantities of animal poison are just some of the things involved here.

These men live illegally on farms all summer, putting tons of waste into the soil and water.

Irrigation tubes that snake for a mile or more over forested ridges. Pesticides that have drained into creeks and entered the food chain, sickening wildlife. Piles of trash and human waste in the most rugged and bucolic drainages.

The danger extends to wildlife as well, because the growers put out poison or shoot the animals that they think are going to threaten the crops.

The presence of rats makes the situation worse. To protect the crops, the growers use poison pellets which the rats ingest. Once the body decomposes, the poison goes back into the soil. Vultures and other animals eating the rats can also be poisoned.

Each plant also uses about 15 gallons of water per day soaking up a large part of the water resources around.

This drug policy report indicates that the trouble goes beyond drug warriors with toxins.

The drug war's threat to the environmental is not limited to overzealous drug warriors armed with toxic herbicides. Organized crime groups who cash in on the drug war's distortion of supply and demand dynamics have little regard for the environment. In Andean nations, illicit cocaine producers dispose of chemical byproducts by pouring excess chemicals wherever it's convenient. The hazardous methamphetamine labs of the U.S. are reminiscent of the deadly exploding liquor stills that sprung up throughout the nation during alcohol prohibition. Even growers of organic marijuana impact the environment by felling trees in national forests to make room for illicit grow sites.

Most detractors are also the first to clarify that medical marijuana growers are actually some of the most responsible citizens around.

There is a ser-ious distinction to be made. Many medical [legal] marijuana growers are some of the most responsible citizens around. They buy soil in bulk, use rat traps instead of poison, water with timers and drip systems. They have very little physical impact on the land. I'm not up against legal growers. The ones I'm concerned with are the ones polluting the environment in the name of huge profits. The plants are seasonal, but the environmental damage lasts forever.

Outside of the obvious benefits of hemp -- can be used as a bio-diesel, burns cleanly, makes soil stronger, sturdier paper, etc. -- organic and sustainable practices for growing marijuana would bring in tons of revenue for the states, clear up the environment, and save the government $150 billion on policing and courts, since 47.5% of all drug arrests are marijuana-related.

While we're not promoting a drug addiction here, the benefits to the environment by making marijuana legal, definitely seem enough to take action.

Even Glenn Beck seems to think this is worth it.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

Very interesting. I remember arguing this about a year ago, that legalizing cannabis would be better for the environment. But I was talking about all the indoor growing then (as opposed to making direct use of solar power through legal large scale outdoor growing), I didn't know it was this bad in California.

 

[spice]

Yes, large scale commerce is inherently destructive.

It is the nature of the beast.


The bottom line is that the GOVERNMENT is responsible for all of that environmental abuse, by driving underground the growing of a simple plant, and the smoking of the flowers thereof.

You don't HAVE to use chemical fertilizers and poisons to grow weed, but when they are used, they are the tools of the trade of INDUSTRY.........

Let's make absolutely sure that we know WHY the government is to blame;

For drumming greed into everyone so successfully that the law-enforcement bodies of the same government are basically powerless to modify said illegal behaivour.

What's driving the production?

The lust for the dollar.

Why can't they stop illegal importation?

See above answer.

By looking at the people that are doing these things, it is easy to psychologically shift some of the resentment to people who, while guilty of lapses in judgment and destructive acts, are NOT guilty ON THE SAME SCALE as the cretins who created the complete set of circumstances which drive the entire enterprise.

Let's keep our focus on the area it needs to be on.