Rapacious Weed: News Outlets Eye Enviro Costs of Humboldt’s Pot Farms
by
Ryan Burns
on
October 26, 2012 at 11:32AM
Two news stories this week, the first from the Sacramento Bee and a follow-up from Mother Jones, examine the environmental impacts of large-scale outdoor marijuana grow operations, which have exploded over the rural hills of Northern California in recent years. Both stories point out how the conflict between state and federal laws has effectively stymied attempts to regulate medical marijuana, allowing outdoor growers to harm the environment through illegal stream diversions, grading and the use of herbicides, pesticides, rodenticides and fertilizer.