I’ve often heard the saying from middle-aged dudes, “I don’t smoke weed because there’s way too much chemicals in it, nowadays.” Then they’d puff a cigarette and finish their energy drink. Often, I’d laugh off their statements as another ironic baseless opinions from an older adult. But if we take a trip to California, and observe some of the practices of illegal marijuana farms, the millennial in me might just sing a different tune about unregulated ganja.
California has recently been responsible for ’90 percent of illegal U.S. marijuana,’ according to a new report from Reuters. The state has also shown a rapid increase in the usage of nationally restricted fertilizers such as carbofuran and zinc phosphide, according to ecologists.
“Increasingly, dangerous, unregistered pesticides are being encountered by law enforcement officers who investigate illegal marijuana grows,” said Special Agent-in-Charge of the Environmental Protection Agency criminal enforcement program, Jay M. Green. “Through their indiscriminate application, these unregistered pesticides pollute our lands and waters, create a significant safety risk to humans and animals, and present a mounting cleanup expense for taxpayers.”
The state of California has allegedly used ’41 times more solid fertilizers and 80 times more liquid pesticides’ than the amount that the state previously reported in 2013. It appears as if the state has been under-reporting the amount of fertilizers and pesticides released into the environment. So, it appears that full blame shouldn’t be reserved for illicit pot growers. The state, itself, appears to be writing off pollutants like someone cheating on their golf score.
These chemicals, that have been under-reported by California, carry deadly consequences. They can led to health defects in both human and animals. And if you consume enough of these chemicals, you can die.
The Environmental Agency said in their report, that “a single swallow can be fatal to a small child, and carbofuran to be ‘highly toxic to vertebrates and birds. In granular form, a single grain will kill a bird; for humans, one quarter of a teaspoon is a sufficient dose to be fatal.'”
In 2011, this agency announced that they would effectively prohibit the legal use of an inorganic chemical compound known as zinc phosphide.
Research from Reuters revealed that federal land in California currently has “731,000 pounds of solid fertilizer, 491,000 ounces of concentrated liquid fertilizer and 200,000 ounces of toxic pesticides.”
Marijuana officially became legalized for recreational use in California as a result of the November 2016 election. California citizens took part in a direct-democracy initiative, where 57 percent of voters chose “yes” on Proposition 64 compared to 43 percent who voted “no” on the Adult Use Of Marijuana Act (Prop. 64).
Supervisor of Trinity County Keith Groves wishes that the illegal marijuana growers would just get state licenses. According to Groves, there are roughly 4,000 illegal growers in the state. Groves said, “I’ll be happy if we can get 500 of them to become licensed.”
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