Reefer Madness–The Environmental Costs Of Pot

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv5IgrDksLk&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Marijuana won’t make you crazy but the ways people grow marijuana might.  Pesticides, diesel spills, invading public lands, stealing water are all part of irresponsible growers’ behavior.

Some growers work to be as light on the earth as they can. But others don’t.

Consumers are the ones who can change that behavior.

As often as possible, they must …

Buy Organic

Buy Outdoor

Buy Local

—–

The video above was made by two Berkeley Film students ( Shannon Service and Kate McLean.) The film is airing now on Bay Citizen.org

The two women hiked with me up Hacker Creek and used excerpts in this piece.  They also spoke to one of the two authors of The Climate Killers Inside as well as went with a clean up crew onto public lands and spoke with a local organic farmer.

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28 Comments
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Mark W
Guest
13 years ago

how ironic that the Google ad right below your post is for Miracle Grow!

t
Guest
t
13 years ago

wow!

First off, it was really cool to see you on video! 🙂 bet that was a fun experience!

Secondly i had no idea how beautiful the Hacker Creek area is! i would love to hike there.

Staff
Member
13 years ago
Reply to  t

Its mostly only accessible through private property but there are many incredible places to hike in Humboldt. You should check some out.

Mark W
Guest
13 years ago

how ironic that the Google ad right below your post is for Miracle Grow!

Mr. Nice
Guest
Mr. Nice
13 years ago

Your typical Okie doke grower uses 15 to 100 gallon pots and has those automatically watered by a gravity feed. The water tank is filled by a ram and/or gasoline-powered pump. Larger operations skip the gravity nonsense and pump directly. Each of those containers is highly inefficient at water use, dropping 30% just to saturate and more to evaporation. To flush, 5 times the container volume is used in water or 500 gallons per plant in one huge algae-growing water bonanza.

Save water, buy indoor hydro.

Staff
Member
13 years ago
Reply to  Mr. Nice

Mr. Nice, I’m worried about water use too. Several of my neighbors have purchased large rain catchment systems that seem to do a beautiful job of minimizing water use out of creeks.

t
Guest
t
13 years ago

wow!

First off, it was really cool to see you on video! 🙂 bet that was a fun experience!

Secondly i had no idea how beautiful the Hacker Creek area is! i would love to hike there.

Staff
Member
13 years ago
Reply to  t

Its mostly only accessible through private property but there are many incredible places to hike in Humboldt. You should check some out.

humboldtkids
Guest
humboldtkids
13 years ago

Fiance here: Thanks Kym…This is what people need to see to understand how their greed is effecting you area and the consumers. By the way it was good to actually hear your voice.

Staff
Member
13 years ago
Reply to  humboldtkids

Thanks. I didn’t really like the way I came across–kind of bug eyed and intense but at least the point came across.

Mr. Nice
Guest
Mr. Nice
13 years ago

Your typical Okie doke grower uses 15 to 100 gallon pots and has those automatically watered by a gravity feed. The water tank is filled by a ram and/or gasoline-powered pump. Larger operations skip the gravity nonsense and pump directly. Each of those containers is highly inefficient at water use, dropping 30% just to saturate and more to evaporation. To flush, 5 times the container volume is used in water or 500 gallons per plant in one huge algae-growing water bonanza.

Save water, buy indoor hydro.

Staff
Member
13 years ago
Reply to  Mr. Nice

Mr. Nice, I’m worried about water use too. Several of my neighbors have purchased large rain catchment systems that seem to do a beautiful job of minimizing water use out of creeks.

tj
Guest
tj
13 years ago

Well done film. I am impressed also by your diligence Kym on presenting facts on the marijuana controversies. Keep it up.

humboldtkids
Guest
humboldtkids
13 years ago

Fiance here: Thanks Kym…This is what people need to see to understand how their greed is effecting you area and the consumers. By the way it was good to actually hear your voice.

Staff
Member
13 years ago
Reply to  humboldtkids

Thanks. I didn’t really like the way I came across–kind of bug eyed and intense but at least the point came across.

trackback

[…] found out about this piece because the reporter is Kate Mclean who interviewed me recently for the video about the environmental effects of marijuana growing.  The amount of research that went into this […]

tj
Guest
tj
13 years ago

Well done film. I am impressed also by your diligence Kym on presenting facts on the marijuana controversies. Keep it up.

organic mechanic™
Guest
organic mechanic™
13 years ago

hmmm…..not quite the truth, but at least looking at the indoor problem.
excuse me but, being part of the emerald triangle for 25 years — all the growers I know (and I know a fair amount, at least local longtime community members) are property owners, grow outdoors, and most grow organic because they use it themselves. as a land owner, I do not foul the nest. neither do the moms & pops.
so what rings false to me in this, is lumping the whole industry (the most successful decentralized community-based economy in California’s history w/ no Government or Commodifiers’ intervention) into *polluters* like your comments did in this vid.
interesting as to the personalities who are finding their *celebrity moment* in all this. you rob the collective community of 30 years of brainstrust by suddenly being the *experts* on weed.
worse one doing this is Allman — completely gobsmacked by his place in the spotlight. what a careerist! Allman is so compromised w/ all the pithy sound bites he’s given the media that he should resign as sheriff. what an egoist he is — check out his homepage. offering popcorn out of his sheriff’s hat to a pre-pubescent Asian girl child! what is that about, sheriff?
indoor grows are completely unnecessary except for the greed factor. back in the day, when they first started to flourish, it was to escape the helicopters. then the greed factor set in. now we have the *juicing it so must have fresh leaves* baloney. I’m sure the patents are pending for the juicers.
there are laws of karma. already the MediJane cartels are starting to war w/ each other. meanwhile, we get self-appointed MediJane warriors who distract and confuse as they play all sides. little do they know how far some of the tentacles of we the peasants reach. what a charade.
peace out.

Staff
Member
13 years ago

I, too, think it is kind of scary that I’m considered an expert. I don’t even smoke;> But I am willing to speak up. The hard part is that video only allows for a snap of what is said. I spent an entire day in their company. The nuances of that conversation are hard to convey in the minute I was on tape. I not only tried to convey that most growers were responsible but that most indoor growers were responsible. I just wanted to get out that there is a hazard and a problem that should be addressed. Sadly, no one wants to watch me blather on for a day about my community. So quite a bit of what I think of as important disappears.

humboldtkids
Guest
humboldtkids
13 years ago

Fiance here: I know that I’m getting older and the world is changing….but….way back in olden times when I was in high school I studied journalism. Now, Kym, while writing a blog, not newpapers articles is free to “report” anything she wants. It can be all pure opinion and thats ok. What I learned in high school journalism was that a reporter should always be objective and present more than one side of every story. Kym does just that. She has somehow found her way back to legitimate old school journalism. She makes no bones about where she stands on the issue, but unlike most, she is willing to state the other sides of the issue and debate them, without calling names and personally attacking those that she does not agree with. She is willing to admit that there are problems that come with that chosen lifestyle and that those issues need to be addressed with open minds.

She does not and never has, to my knowledge, professed to being any kind of an expert. She writes from her heart and from her personal experiences. She is one of the few people that I have run into from that neck of the woods that is willing to be objective. She can’t help it if people come to her for interviewss, I don’t think she has been soliciting them……..If you don’t like it or her postion then maybe you should come out of the woods and be willing to state your case openly.

Staff
Member
13 years ago
Reply to  humboldtkids

Thank you for taking my part.

I’ve sat on this post waiting for enlightenment but, uh, I’m just not feeling very smart these days.

humboldtkids
Guest
humboldtkids
13 years ago
Reply to  Staff

Fiance here: No prob., I am a Texan and I was raised to stand up for what you belive and who you belive in. I just call em’ like I see em’ and felt like someone should say something in your behalf so I did. I know we don’t always agree on things but I understand your postition and it is why I have continued to read your blog for a couple of years. Have a good week!

trackback

[…] found out about this piece because the reporter is Kate Mclean who interviewed me recently for the video about the environmental effects of marijuana growing.  The amount of research that went into this […]

organic mechanic™
Guest
organic mechanic™
13 years ago

hmmm…..not quite the truth, but at least looking at the indoor problem.
excuse me but, being part of the emerald triangle for 25 years — all the growers I know (and I know a fair amount, at least local longtime community members) are property owners, grow outdoors, and most grow organic because they use it themselves. as a land owner, I do not foul the nest. neither do the moms & pops.
so what rings false to me in this, is lumping the whole industry (the most successful decentralized community-based economy in California’s history w/ no Government or Commodifiers’ intervention) into *polluters* like your comments did in this vid.
interesting as to the personalities who are finding their *celebrity moment* in all this. you rob the collective community of 30 years of brainstrust by suddenly being the *experts* on weed.
worse one doing this is Allman — completely gobsmacked by his place in the spotlight. what a careerist! Allman is so compromised w/ all the pithy sound bites he’s given the media that he should resign as sheriff. what an egoist he is — check out his homepage. offering popcorn out of his sheriff’s hat to a pre-pubescent Asian girl child! what is that about, sheriff?
indoor grows are completely unnecessary except for the greed factor. back in the day, when they first started to flourish, it was to escape the helicopters. then the greed factor set in. now we have the *juicing it so must have fresh leaves* baloney. I’m sure the patents are pending for the juicers.
there are laws of karma. already the MediJane cartels are starting to war w/ each other. meanwhile, we get self-appointed MediJane warriors who distract and confuse as they play all sides. little do they know how far some of the tentacles of we the peasants reach. what a charade.
peace out.

Staff
Member
13 years ago

I, too, think it is kind of scary that I’m considered an expert. I don’t even smoke;> But I am willing to speak up. The hard part is that video only allows for a snap of what is said. I spent an entire day in their company. The nuances of that conversation are hard to convey in the minute I was on tape. I not only tried to convey that most growers were responsible but that most indoor growers were responsible. I just wanted to get out that there is a hazard and a problem that should be addressed. Sadly, no one wants to watch me blather on for a day about my community. So quite a bit of what I think of as important disappears.

humboldtkids
Guest
humboldtkids
13 years ago

Fiance here: I know that I’m getting older and the world is changing….but….way back in olden times when I was in high school I studied journalism. Now, Kym, while writing a blog, not newpapers articles is free to “report” anything she wants. It can be all pure opinion and thats ok. What I learned in high school journalism was that a reporter should always be objective and present more than one side of every story. Kym does just that. She has somehow found her way back to legitimate old school journalism. She makes no bones about where she stands on the issue, but unlike most, she is willing to state the other sides of the issue and debate them, without calling names and personally attacking those that she does not agree with. She is willing to admit that there are problems that come with that chosen lifestyle and that those issues need to be addressed with open minds.

She does not and never has, to my knowledge, professed to being any kind of an expert. She writes from her heart and from her personal experiences. She is one of the few people that I have run into from that neck of the woods that is willing to be objective. She can’t help it if people come to her for interviewss, I don’t think she has been soliciting them……..If you don’t like it or her postion then maybe you should come out of the woods and be willing to state your case openly.

Staff
Member
13 years ago
Reply to  humboldtkids

Thank you for taking my part.

I’ve sat on this post waiting for enlightenment but, uh, I’m just not feeling very smart these days.

humboldtkids
Guest
humboldtkids
13 years ago
Reply to  Staff

Fiance here: No prob., I am a Texan and I was raised to stand up for what you belive and who you belive in. I just call em’ like I see em’ and felt like someone should say something in your behalf so I did. I know we don’t always agree on things but I understand your postition and it is why I have continued to read your blog for a couple of years. Have a good week!