Is Cannabis Legalization Causing Stress on the Environment?

As with any new enterprise, the cannabis industry is learning as it goes along. A decade ago, state regulators were focused on safety and security. But they are now trying to add a layer of protection — one centered on sustainability and environmental protection.

“If we decriminalize at the federal level without providing the proper regulatory structure, it might result in a negative environmental impact,” says Kaitlin Urso, environmental consultant for Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “Marijuana is now strictly controlled by the states. Without the right regulatory structure, I’m fearful that the entire nation could be back to where Colorado was 10 years ago. The industry must continue to be safe and it must become environmentally sound.”

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Urso is part of the National Cannabis Industry Association that is issuing a white paper on how to make the cannabis industry greener. She explains that there is a difference between marijuana and hemp. The former has higher THC content, whereas the latter has much lower levels.

To that end, Colorado has a law that says any marijuana plant material that is waste of THC must be evenly mixed with other trash before it can be disposed of in landfills, essentially doubling the industry’s landfill footprint. The white paper is suggesting that the 50-50 dilution rate be watered down to eliminate that environmental pressure. That is because 90% of the waste stream is plant stems that have little THC content.

“When we first legalized, the dilution rate was 50-50,” says Urso. “It was done for public safety. We didn’t think about the landfill aspect of it. We didn’t know how large our industry would become.”

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Meantime, the nascent industry is still struggling to get its arms wrapped around energy efficiencies and especially in states like California, Colorado, and Washington State that have legalized such production and that have strict air quality rules. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimates that growing it indoors makes up as much as 1% of the electricity use nationwide. That comes to $6 billion a year. And it amounts to 15 million tons of greenhouse gases.

Continue reading at Forbes.com.

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