Marlo Lewis points to new research showing that pot growing has a large carbon footprint, and may in fact use as much as 1 percent of total electricity in the U.S. Bummer, man.
Considering the number of people that get caught growing indoors because their electricity usage goes through the roof (not sure how that works, but it happens), that 1% figure wouldn't surprise me a bit.
I'm rapidly being drawn towards the libertarian stance on this issue. Soma for everyone! Well, not *everyone*...just the people that would otherwise compete against my children for sports, school, employment, etc...
I bet there are a TON of grant applications out there for experiments or pilot programs to solve this problem, but they're all half-finished because the applications are, like, 15 pages long, and you have to fill in so much, like, detail, it's just, like, whatever, let's do it next year when our heads are in a better space.
The reason growing pot uses so much electricity is that growing pot is illegal. Growing plants *outside* doesn't use much electricity. Pot is only grown indoors to hide it from the police.
"Growing plants *outside* doesn't use much electricity. Pot is only grown indoors to hide it from the police."
I think pot is mostly grown indoors to allow the cultivator better control over the crop and its inputs (water, fertilizer, light, etc), in order to maximize a given strain's THC potential, not just to hide it from the police.
If you click through to the actual study, it deals mostly with indoor grow rates in California, which also has an absolutely BOOMING al fresco marijuana cultivation business (often in national parks), so I'm not sure that law enforcement is driving the move indoors, but rather market demands for ever more potent strains.
"Pot is only grown indoors to hide it from the police." Well, not only that, but indoor-grown tends to be better quality than outdoor-grown, for several reasons including complete control of the photoperiod, water and nutrients, and less cross-pollination with outdoor ditchweed.
Legalize it, and help reduce the violence of Mexican drug gangs.
No, it's grown inside to avoid law enforcement. Growing indoors has some advantages, but one big disadvantage: space. You could grow the same product for much less money on a farm. The only reason the whole super precise indoor growing methods started was to maximize use of limited space.
I think linearheights has it right - there is a lot more control growing indoors, and one can grow more potent strains. It is definitely an energy-intensive process. That isn't to overlook that states that hate freedom (ones that make cannabis illegal) force all the more growing indoors, and it is also not to say that there is not a lot of outdoor growing in the semi-legal states.
I keep waiting for this issue to make it on to a real "freedom" agenda, but still this is treated as a joke by all but the most libertarian republicans.
Conservatives of all people ought to realize that legal and economic incentives matter. Right now pot is grown indoors because it is illegal. The electricity for the grow lights is expensive, but the operation is profitable anyway because prohibition restricts supply and inflates the retail price.
If pot were legal it would be more profitable to grow it in sunlight like every other crop.
I'll second Jason and point out that indoor growing operations have another major disadvantage: the expense of all the electricity for grow lamps. They turn a handsome profit anyway because prohibition, by restricting supply, has inflated the retail price
Conservatives, of all people, ought to know that economic incentives matter.
"like every other crop." Pot is NOT corn. Along the spectrum of pot quality, there is at least a 10:1 price differential, unlike other ag commodities. Price premium more than makes up for the increased electrical cost of indoor growing (if, indeed, the grower is not pirating the electricity anyway.)
Pot is NOT wheat. Outdoor growers cannot control photoperiod, which is crucial to pot quality and yield.
Some of you commenters know the economics of markets in general, but if you are unfamiliar with pot quality, consumption and production, do not presume to diagnose pot-market dynamics in the general terms of commodity crops. Pot is NOT potatoes.
If one is prosecuted for selling pot, there is no additional penalty for selling high quality pot vs low quality pot (but there is additional revenue). To minimize legal risk, pot growers want to sell a very high quality, expensive product to minimize the number of transactions/quantity sold per dollar of revenue.
If pot was legal, there would be much less incentive to grow it indoors. From a libertarian perspective, I am open to legalizing pot. Legalizing pot would reduce crime and decrease income for criminals. It would help Mexicans reclaim their country from the drug cartels that are trying to run/ruin Mexico.
Rather than deciding at the national level, each individual state should decide whether pot should be legalized in that state.
If one is prosecuted for selling pot, there is no additional penalty for selling high quality pot vs low quality pot (but there is additional revenue). To minimize legal risk, pot growers want to sell a very high quality, expensive product to minimize the number of transactions/quantity sold per dollar of revenue.
If pot was legal, there would be much less incentive to grow it indoors. From a libertarian perspective, I am open to legalizing pot. Legalizing pot would reduce crime and decrease income for criminals. It would help Mexicans reclaim their country from the drug cartels that are trying to run/ruin Mexico.
Rather than deciding at the national level, each individual state should decide whether pot should be legalized in that state.
Pro-pot Steve Koch posts the same comment twice due to impaired faculties. Resident net-nanny and self-identified pot agronomist Jason is offended by slacker references. What to do now, Jason? Scold the repeat-poster, or report me for calling you an NRO comment nazi fascist pig...
"If one is prosecuted for selling pot, there is no additional penalty for selling high quality pot vs low quality pot"
Now this is a law change I'd like to see! It would kind of be like the powder cocaine/crack sentencing imbalance, but in reverse: if you get busted holding primo quality, New York delivery service-grade weed, it's straight to the lock up for you. But if you get busted with low THC ditch weed, they let you go with only a warning...
The reason for the grow-lights and water pumps isn't to improve the quality of the product, children! It's to hide it from the cops, pure and simple.
If you ever watch the wonderful home renovation show "Holmes On Homes" featuring that contractor-hero Mike Holmes, you might remember an episode where a woman rented her empty house to a "nice young couple" who always paid the rent and who she otherwise never heard from...until the cops showed up to tell her they'd turned the house into a "grow-pad" literally filling every room with hydroponic pot plants, grow lights, etc. etc.--even to the point, as Holmes discovered, of drilling through the basement walls to get to a nearby power line to avoid detection (and billing) for all that electrical useage from the "Hydro" power utility! The house, btw, was utterly infested with mold from the humid, hot conditions maintained 24/7 to grow the weed.
That's the carbon footprint issue, folks. Oh, well...there's always the smoke caused by using the stuff, I guess, which might be slightly mitigated via brownie ingestion, but hey, you have to power the oven so I'm not so sure. So...when will Greenpeace and the Earth Day folks start protesting pot as an environmental hazard?
RE: "The reason for the grow-lights and water pumps isn't to improve the quality of the product, children! It's to hide it from the cops, pure and simple."
Would people still grow indoors if was legal? I think yes. Would as many? Of course not.
Considering the number of people that get caught growing indoors because their electricity usage goes through the roof (not sure how that works, but it happens), that 1% figure wouldn't surprise me a bit.
I'm rapidly being drawn towards the libertarian stance on this issue. Soma for everyone! Well, not *everyone*...just the people that would otherwise compete against my children for sports, school, employment, etc...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI bet there are a TON of grant applications out there for experiments or pilot programs to solve this problem, but they're all half-finished because the applications are, like, 15 pages long, and you have to fill in so much, like, detail, it's just, like, whatever, let's do it next year when our heads are in a better space.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat a lame joke ("bummer man").
The reason growing pot uses so much electricity is that growing pot is illegal. Growing plants *outside* doesn't use much electricity. Pot is only grown indoors to hide it from the police.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@Jason
"Growing plants *outside* doesn't use much electricity. Pot is only grown indoors to hide it from the police."
I think pot is mostly grown indoors to allow the cultivator better control over the crop and its inputs (water, fertilizer, light, etc), in order to maximize a given strain's THC potential, not just to hide it from the police.
If you click through to the actual study, it deals mostly with indoor grow rates in California, which also has an absolutely BOOMING al fresco marijuana cultivation business (often in national parks), so I'm not sure that law enforcement is driving the move indoors, but rather market demands for ever more potent strains.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Pot is only grown indoors to hide it from the police." Well, not only that, but indoor-grown tends to be better quality than outdoor-grown, for several reasons including complete control of the photoperiod, water and nutrients, and less cross-pollination with outdoor ditchweed.
Legalize it, and help reduce the violence of Mexican drug gangs.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo, it's grown inside to avoid law enforcement. Growing indoors has some advantages, but one big disadvantage: space. You could grow the same product for much less money on a farm. The only reason the whole super precise indoor growing methods started was to maximize use of limited space.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think linearheights has it right - there is a lot more control growing indoors, and one can grow more potent strains. It is definitely an energy-intensive process. That isn't to overlook that states that hate freedom (ones that make cannabis illegal) force all the more growing indoors, and it is also not to say that there is not a lot of outdoor growing in the semi-legal states.
I keep waiting for this issue to make it on to a real "freedom" agenda, but still this is treated as a joke by all but the most libertarian republicans.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseConservatives of all people ought to realize that legal and economic incentives matter. Right now pot is grown indoors because it is illegal. The electricity for the grow lights is expensive, but the operation is profitable anyway because prohibition restricts supply and inflates the retail price.
If pot were legal it would be more profitable to grow it in sunlight like every other crop.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is hilarious. I love it; it made my day.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'll second Jason and point out that indoor growing operations have another major disadvantage: the expense of all the electricity for grow lamps. They turn a handsome profit anyway because prohibition, by restricting supply, has inflated the retail price
Conservatives, of all people, ought to know that economic incentives matter.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"like every other crop." Pot is NOT corn. Along the spectrum of pot quality, there is at least a 10:1 price differential, unlike other ag commodities. Price premium more than makes up for the increased electrical cost of indoor growing (if, indeed, the grower is not pirating the electricity anyway.)
Pot is NOT wheat. Outdoor growers cannot control photoperiod, which is crucial to pot quality and yield.
Some of you commenters know the economics of markets in general, but if you are unfamiliar with pot quality, consumption and production, do not presume to diagnose pot-market dynamics in the general terms of commodity crops. Pot is NOT potatoes.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf one is prosecuted for selling pot, there is no additional penalty for selling high quality pot vs low quality pot (but there is additional revenue). To minimize legal risk, pot growers want to sell a very high quality, expensive product to minimize the number of transactions/quantity sold per dollar of revenue.
If pot was legal, there would be much less incentive to grow it indoors. From a libertarian perspective, I am open to legalizing pot. Legalizing pot would reduce crime and decrease income for criminals. It would help Mexicans reclaim their country from the drug cartels that are trying to run/ruin Mexico.
Rather than deciding at the national level, each individual state should decide whether pot should be legalized in that state.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf one is prosecuted for selling pot, there is no additional penalty for selling high quality pot vs low quality pot (but there is additional revenue). To minimize legal risk, pot growers want to sell a very high quality, expensive product to minimize the number of transactions/quantity sold per dollar of revenue.
If pot was legal, there would be much less incentive to grow it indoors. From a libertarian perspective, I am open to legalizing pot. Legalizing pot would reduce crime and decrease income for criminals. It would help Mexicans reclaim their country from the drug cartels that are trying to run/ruin Mexico.
Rather than deciding at the national level, each individual state should decide whether pot should be legalized in that state.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePro-pot Steve Koch posts the same comment twice due to impaired faculties. Resident net-nanny and self-identified pot agronomist Jason is offended by slacker references. What to do now, Jason? Scold the repeat-poster, or report me for calling you an NRO comment nazi fascist pig...
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"If one is prosecuted for selling pot, there is no additional penalty for selling high quality pot vs low quality pot"
Now this is a law change I'd like to see! It would kind of be like the powder cocaine/crack sentencing imbalance, but in reverse: if you get busted holding primo quality, New York delivery service-grade weed, it's straight to the lock up for you. But if you get busted with low THC ditch weed, they let you go with only a warning...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe reason for the grow-lights and water pumps isn't to improve the quality of the product, children! It's to hide it from the cops, pure and simple.
If you ever watch the wonderful home renovation show "Holmes On Homes" featuring that contractor-hero Mike Holmes, you might remember an episode where a woman rented her empty house to a "nice young couple" who always paid the rent and who she otherwise never heard from...until the cops showed up to tell her they'd turned the house into a "grow-pad" literally filling every room with hydroponic pot plants, grow lights, etc. etc.--even to the point, as Holmes discovered, of drilling through the basement walls to get to a nearby power line to avoid detection (and billing) for all that electrical useage from the "Hydro" power utility! The house, btw, was utterly infested with mold from the humid, hot conditions maintained 24/7 to grow the weed.
That's the carbon footprint issue, folks. Oh, well...there's always the smoke caused by using the stuff, I guess, which might be slightly mitigated via brownie ingestion, but hey, you have to power the oven so I'm not so sure. So...when will Greenpeace and the Earth Day folks start protesting pot as an environmental hazard?
Not uh....holding my breath. (Smile)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRE: "The reason for the grow-lights and water pumps isn't to improve the quality of the product, children! It's to hide it from the cops, pure and simple."
Would people still grow indoors if was legal? I think yes. Would as many? Of course not.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse