You potheads are destroying the environment...

[Nightshade]

...and you don't give a damn.

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - Toxic chemicals from illegal marijuana farms hidden deep in California's forests are showing up in rivers and streams that feed the state's water supply, prompting fears that humans and animals may be at risk, data reviewed by Reuters show.

The presence of potentially deadly pollutants in eight Northern and Central California watersheds is the latest sign of damage to the environment from thousands of illegal cannabis plantations, many of them run by drug cartels serving customers in other states, according to law enforcement.

"I don't drink out of the creeks - and I used to," said Sergeant Nathaniel Trujillo, a narcotics expert with the sheriff's department of Trinity County, about 200 miles north of San Francisco. "I grew up drinking out of them."

California accounts for more than 90 percent of illegal U.S. marijuana farming. There are as many as 50,000 marijuana farms in California according to state estimates, and even though voters legalized the drug last November, only about 16,000 growers are expected to seek licenses when commercial cultivation becomes legal next year.

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles ... rnia-water

[Krom]

You do realize that large scale legal commercial cultivation should be able to quickly outproduce and undercut these back woods little plots and drive all the unlicensed ones straight out of business and out of the environment in short order. There is no need to sign up all 50k of them, the overwhelming majority of those who don't will simply go bust or quit because the legal ones should have a tremendous cost advantage.

[Tunnelcat]

Better add to that list corn and soybeans, and those are "legitimate" crops destroying farmland, all in the name of profit, fatter cattle, cleaner fuels and feeding an ever growing nation.

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsan ... vironment/

http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/gmo-cro ... want-know/

[Nightshade]

You do realize that large scale legal commercial cultivation should be able to quickly outproduce and undercut these back woods little plots and drive all the unlicensed ones straight out of business and out of the environment in short order. There is no need to sign up all 50k of them, the overwhelming majority of those who don't will simply go bust or quit because the legal ones should have a tremendous cost advantage.

Hardly the case. There is "ZERO" governmental overhead cost for the illegal farms because they aren't taxed...nor will there be any costs associated with registering every year...etc. They will always be cheaper than the "legal" operations.

The only way "legal" operations will have a hand up is if there is active enforcement of the law and the state comes in to shut down the illegal plots (IF they can even find all of them.)

[Jeff250]

You don't have to find them all. You just have to have enough enforcement so that the price of obtaining blackmarket goods is greater than the one of obtaining them legally.

[Nightshade]

You just have to have enough enforcement so that the price of obtaining blackmarket goods is greater than the one of obtaining them legally.

Wake me when that happens.

[Tunnelcat]

What is it with conservatives. When illegal stuff goes on, like these backwoods marijuana grows for example, it's the worst thing in the world and it needs to be stopped at all costs. When corporations do far worse, legally I might add, like poison and denude huge tracts of farmland with loads of fertilizer and toxins, spoil our natural wilderness areas in the name of mining and oil exploration and permanently poison giant swaths of our groundwater resources with fracking, all in the name of almighty capitalism, it's either don't worry about it or tough ★■◆●, because what they do is legal. I don't get it. Your priorities are just plain weird.

[Ferno]

What is it with conservatives. When illegal stuff goes on, like these backwoods marijuana grows for example, it's the worst thing in the world and it needs to be stopped at all costs. When corporations do far worse, legally I might add, like poison and denude huge tracts of farmland with loads of fertilizer and toxins, spoil our natural wilderness areas in the name of mining and oil exploration and permanently poison giant swaths of our groundwater resources with fracking, all in the name of almighty capitalism, it's either don't worry about it or tough ★■◆●, because what they do is legal. I don't get it. Your priorities are just plain weird.

Answer: "Who benefits."

[Tunnelcat]

NS also doesn't realize that large scale illegal marijuana growers are capitalists, not hippy environmentally conscious liberals. It's usually capitalists who don't give a damn about the environment.

[Spidey]

Farming is not capitalism, capitalism can be used by farmers for buying seed, equipment etc. but farming itself is not capitalism.

[Nightshade]

NS also doesn't realize that large scale illegal marijuana growers are capitalists, not hippy environmentally conscious liberals. It's usually capitalists who don't give a damn about the environment.

Black market "capitalists." Trafficking in illegal goods, price gouging...etc? Isn't that capitalism too?

Do you think I'd condone such things?

[Vander]

I'm guessing Thunderbunny doesn't realize that you still can't sell recreational pot in California yet.

[callmeslick]

You just have to have enough enforcement so that the price of obtaining blackmarket goods is greater than the one of obtaining them legally.

Wake me when that happens.

huh?? That is precisely what is happening now.

[callmeslick]

Farming is not capitalism, capitalism can be used by farmers for buying seed, equipment etc. but farming itself is not capitalism.

huh? You take raw materials(seed, etc) purchased with investment capital, pay rent for the land, and produce finished goods(foodstuffs) to see to obtain more investment capital. It sure seems like capitalism to me.......

[Tunnelcat]

Farming is not capitalism, capitalism can be used by farmers for buying seed, equipment etc. but farming itself is not capitalism.

Once corporate farming took over most of our large scale food production, it can be called capitalism. I'm talking about Mondelez International, ConAgra, Hormel, General Mills and Unilever sized companies. Between them and Monsanto, they're destroying more land than any illegal pot growers could ever dream of. They also dictate any farm practices to maximize yields and profits, so that rules out those small farms you're talking about.

http://247wallst.com/special-report/201 ... ds-food/3/

For example, palm oil production. Whole tracts of rain forest are being cut down just for the production and exportation of palm oil. Here's one in Borneo.