Can Marijuana Crops Harm the Environment?

According to a New York Times article from earlier this summer, the answer is “yes.” The article highlights several ways in which marijuana growers in Northern California are negatively impacting the environment.  Growers are:

1. using poisons, such as d-Con, to protect their plants in the deep woods, which is harming wildlife (poisons have been detected in spotted owls and the Pacific fisher);
2. leveling hilltops for crop fields, which is causing landslides on erosion-prone mountains and clogging streams with dislodged soil; and
3. diverting water from streams, which is depleting the salmon and other water populations.

But this crop is also an economic boom. The article cites a local bank vice president who estimated that in 2012 marijuana accounted for over a quarter of one California county’s annual economic activity.

The negative environmental impacts are difficult to address, in part, because the crop’s legal status is not clear: it is approved by California for medical use but is illegal under federal law. Thus, local governments are apprehensive about establishing permit systems for the crop. But, according to the article, the worst damage occurs on public lands with illegal operations run by drug cartels.