analysis of DANGERS OF MARIJUANA: ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES RELATED TO MARIJUANA: (2.346876 secs.)
DANGERS OF MARIJUANA: ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES RELATED TO MARIJUANA
Marijuana grows are having a negative impact on our environment.
o In October 2010 the state Department of Fish and Game (DFG)
wardens in California discussed recent cases involving the
diversion of water from creeks. "When people divert 18
.......
water from creeks they deprive wildlife of its most basic water
need," said DFG warden and spokesman Patrick Foy. "(Growers)
also allow chemicals needed for cultivation to drain back onto
the creek...poisoning everything downstream for who knows how
long. We walk upstream to find out why the fish have died, and
more often now than 25 years ago, we're finding the cause is
marijuana gardens," Foy said.101
o "Those who cultivate marijuana on public lands pose a safety
threat to the public and an environmental threat to the land and
to wildlife, said U.S. Attorney Wagner of the Eastern District
of California after results of Operation Mountain Sweep were
announced."102 Public lands are suffering from the effects of
the illegal marijuana grows long after the crop has been harvested.
The growers removed natural vegetation, cut down trees, diverted
streams to irrigate the marijuana crops and used chemicals,
poisons, rodenticides and insecticides which filter into the
ground and streams. Trash and equipment were left behind, littering
the natural preserves.103
o In California scientists are studying the marijuana grows in
the forests to gauge the effects that the marijuana grows are
having on the environment. o In one remote 37-square mile patch
of forest, they counted 281 outdoor pot farms and 286 greenhouses
containing an estimated 20,000 plants, fed by water diverted
from creeks or a fork of the Eel River. It was determined that
the farms were siphoning roughly 18 million gallons from the
watershed every year, around the time when salmon need it most.
o The excess potting soil and fertilizer runoff, combined with
lower-than-normal river flow due to water diversions, has caused
a rash of toxic blue-green algae blooms in North Coast rivers
over the last decade. The cyanobacteria outbreaks threaten public
health for swimmers and kill aquatic invertebrates that salmon
and steelhead trout eat. Officials warn residents in later summer
and fall to stay out of certain stretches of water and keep their
dogs out ' eleven dogs died from ingesting the algae since 2001.
It has also affected the recovery of the salmon runs that were
improving after damage from years of logging.
o Every grow leaves its own damage. Urban indoor growers might
not pollute the rivers but they guzzle energy. A study in the
Journal of Energy Policy calculated that indoor marijuana
cultivation could be responsible for nine percent of California's
household electricity use.104
o According to the National Forest Service, in 2012 marijuana
was grown illegally in 67 national forests across 20 states,
damaging the environment and endangering visitors and employees.105
o Marijuana farms were also a contributing factor to the effects
of the serious drought in California in 2009 and are a contributing
factor to the effects of the drought in 2014. According to
California State officials, a pot plant uses six gallons of water
every day.106
19
.......
o The situation has become so bad in California that public
officials are now focusing on both legal and illegal grows. The
sheriff in Mendocino County is cracking down on growers who steal
water. Governor Jerry Brown's January budget proposed $3.3 million
to enforce pot cultivation rules to protect water and endangered
species. Congressional representatives want to give $3 million
to the DEA to get rid of large pot-operations in public forests.107
o A study by biologists from the University of California Davis
found that potent rat poisons used on large-scale marijuana farms
sprinkled throughout the forest lands in the state may be killing
off a rare forest carnivore. The study documents the deaths of
fishers, reclusive members of the Miustelid family that are
candidates for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Eighty percent of fishers found dead by researchers between 2006
and 2011 had been exposed to high levels of anticoagulant
rodenticide. Most of the deaths occurred between mid-April and
mid-May, which overlapped with the time period that marijuana
farmers used the high levels of commercial pesticides and
rodenticides. The concern is that the whole prey group could
be wiped out, leading to the collapse or partial collapse of a
food chain within the forests.108 The study is just one of many
that are beginning to examine the negative impact that marijuana
grows are having on the environment.
o "The illegal cultivation of marijuana on our National Forest
System is a clear and present danger to the public and the
environment," said U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement Director
David Ferrell, testifying before the Senate Caucus on International
Narcotics Control. Natural vegetation and wildlife are killed
as growers use liberal doses of herbicides, rodenticides and
pesticides, some of them banned in the United States. These
chemicals can cause extensive and long-term damage to the
ecosystems. Human waste and trash in the grow sites are widespread.
Winter rains create severe soil erosion and wash the poisons,
this waste and trash into stream and rivers ' including the Wild
and Scenic Rivers and National Recreation Areas. Cleanup of an
acre costs approximately $5,000. The restoration of the site to
re-establish streams cost another $5,000 per acre. An additional
$5,000 is needed to restore the area to its natural state.109
The detection and dismantling of these operations have become
increasingly dangerous through the introduction and presence of
firearms and "booby-traps" deployed by illicit growers to protect
their capital investment. In addition, Mexican Drug Trafficking
Organizations (DTOs) have realized that the lucrative California
marijuana cultivation business eliminates the need to breach the
southern border with contraband. The DTOs have tapped the expanding
and voracious consumer appetite through outlets provided by the
dispensaries, generating millions of dollars in cash which is
easily smuggled south of the border back to the DTOs.
A marked increase in violent crime throughout Mexico has been
driven, in part, by the kidnapping and forced servitude of Mexican
nationals in working the illicit cultivation operations in
northern California (and elsewhere) to avoid retribution to
themselves or extended families by the DTOs.
In addition to the harm caused by outdoor grows, indoor grows
are causing millions of dollars in property damage for homeowners.
20
.......
o A couple in Altadena, California bought their first home,
what seemed to be a buyers dream, with fresh paint, carpet and
fixtures. After they moved in their dream house became a nightmare.
The smell of fresh paint was overtaken by the smell of stachybotrys
mold growing throughout the house, forcing them to relocate and
spend over $42,000 in repairs. Months later an electrical fire
put them out again. The mold, faulty wiring, and gas leaks all
stemmed from the undisclosed past of the house being used as a
marijuana grow.110 o The owners of a Satellite Beach house in
Brevard County, Florida were told the renters would take care
of the lawn and clean the pool themselves. What they didn't know
is that they would be using the water from the swimming pool as
part of the irrigation system for a hydroponic indoor marijuana
grow in three of the four bedrooms of their home. "They even dug
into the foundation of the house to put pipes and wires in,"
according to Kathleen Burgess, one of the owners, who estimated
the property damage at $60,000. The Brevard County Sheriff's
Office found 24 marijuana plants inside with a possible yield
of 200 pounds of cannabis.111 o A 2011 study by Evan Mills at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory showed that indoor marijuana
production accounted for one percent of national electricity
production, using $6 billion worth of energy per year, and
creating greenhouse gas pollution equivalent to that of 3 million
cars. To address this growing problem, the city of Boulder,
Colorado enacted environmental regulations which require marijuana
growers to purchase wind or solar energy, or to buy carbon
offsets. Although that increased their cost of business, it
protects the environment.112 o According to National Jewish
Health Industrial Hygienist Dr. John Martyny, houses and other
buildings used to grow marijuana indoors contain high levels of
mold, which may pose a threat to residents living there and to
law enforcement agents investigating them. "The combination of
warm temperatures and high humidity found in many indoor marijuana
grow operations can fuel extensive mold growth," said Dr. Martyny.
"Airborne levels of mold spores that we found inside these
structures may subject the occupants, emergency personnel and
other individuals to significant health hazards, especially
allergies, asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis and other
respiratory diseases."113 o A study done by The Werc Shop, an
independent testing lab for medical threat, and published in the
Journal of Toxicology, found that up to 70 percent of the
pesticides found on a marijuana bud can transfer to the smoke
being inhaled. "I think that what's so alarming to us is that
such a huge amount of pesticide material could be transferred,"
said Dr. Jeffrey Raber, who runs the testing lab. "And, you have
to consider that when you inhale (something), it's much like
injecting it directly into your bloodstream."114 There are many
other concerns with growing marijuana. In Oregon, where voters
legalized 'medical" marijuana for qualifying patients in November
1998, patients must grow their own marijuana or have a licensed
grower provide it for them through an unpaid arrangement. While
the initiative had good intentions, numerous concerns exist.
21
.......
o According to Lt. Michael Dingeman, Director of the Oregon
State Police Drug Enforcement Section, many calls from cardholders
are about never receiving the marijuana from their designated
growers. The "growers are simply using the cardholders for cover,
and selling their crops on the black market. In fact, some county
sheriffs estimate that as much as one half of the illegal street
marijuana they're seeing is being grown under the protection of
the state's medical marijuana program."115
o Deputy Chief Tim George of the Medford Police Department says
that the region is "swimming in weed," and the problem keeps
getting worse. "People are traveling with large sums of money
to buy marijuana. Weed is being shipped out of Oregon at record
levels. Medical Marijuana has made it easier for criminals to
grow it."116
o Sergeant Erik Fisher of the Drug Enforcement Section of the
Oregon State Police says that "the perception of the marijuana
drug trade is mellower than other drug operations is wrong." He
notes that almost all the distributors and growers carry firearms.
"The other striking trend has been the increase in home invasion
robberies of medical marijuana folks, and how absolutely violent
they can be. We have more home invasions going on with medical
marijuana people than any other drug dealer I can think of."117
summary: drug_related = 100%, dehumanization = 45%, drugwar_propaganda = 100%
I thought the text was interesting because of these details:
analysis of article text
propaganda analysis
asserted: $drug_related at 100% ($prohibition_agency $illegal_drugs)
asserted: $drugwar_propaganda at 100% ($propaganda_theme1 $propaganda_theme2 $propaganda_theme3 $propaganda_theme7)
asserted: $propaganda_theme1 at 100% ("drug dealer" "dealer" "Drug Trafficking Organizations" "DTOs"), 7 hits
asserted: $propaganda_theme2 at 80% ("violent" "kidnapping" "crime" "criminals" "harm" "alarming" "dangerous" "threat" "threaten" "negative impact" "deaths" "damage" "damaging" "DANGERS" "danger" "DANGERS OF" "poisoning" "poisons" "problem" "perception" "diseases" "suffering" "nightmare"), 37 hits
asserted: $propaganda_theme3 at 75% ("public health"), 1 hits
asserted: $propaganda_theme7 at 98% ("legalized" "legalized 'medical" marijuana" "marijuana. In Oregon, where voters legalized"), 3 hits
asserted: $illegal_drugs at 100% ($cannabis $narcotic $various_illegal_drugs)
asserted: $drugs at 90% ($various_drugs)
asserted: $govt_prohib_other at 66% ("U.S. Attorney" "Wagner"), 2 hits
asserted: $prohibition_agency at 70% ("Police" "Law Enforcement" "DEA" "Drug Enforcement"), 10 hits
asserted: $plants at 100% ($cannabis)
asserted: $intoxicant at 100% ($cannabis)
asserted: $medical_cannabis at 100% ("medical marijuana" "patients must grow their own marijuana" "marijuana for qualifying patients" "medical" marijuana"), 7 hits
asserted: $narcotic at 100% ("Narcotics"), 1 hits
asserted: $cannabis at 100% ("MARIJUANA" "cannabis" "pot" "pot-operations" "weed" $medical_cannabis), 42 hits
asserted: $various_drugs at 90% ("Drug"), 6 hits
asserted: $various_illegal_drugs at 100% ("Drug Trafficking" "drug dealer" "black market" "contraband"), 4 hits
asserted: $school at 100% ("University"), 1 hits
asserted: $aggrandizement at 100% ("Officials"), 3 hits
Sentence-By-Sentence Analysis
(1) DANGERS OF MARIJUANA: ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES RELATED TO MARIJUANA Marijuana grows are having a negative impact on our environment. o In October 2010 the state Department of Fish and Game (DFG) wardens in California discussed recent cases involving the diversion of water from creeks .
re: "negative impact", "DANGERS", "DANGERS OF" -
Prohibitionist propaganda claims that horrible dangers
are caused by "drugs."
(Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )
(4) We walk upstream to find out why the fish have died, and more often now than 25 years ago, we're finding the cause is marijuana gardens," Foy said.101 o "Those who cultivate marijuana on public lands pose a safety threat to the public and an environmental threat to the land and to wildlife, said U.S .
re: "threat" -
Drugs, scream prohibitionists, cause all bad things in life: crime,
violence, insanity, etc. If not for prohibition (i.e., jailing drug
users), then criminality, violence and psychotic behavior would explode
upon the land, the prohibitionist assures us.
(Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )
(5) Attorney Wagner of the Eastern District of California after results of Operation Mountain Sweep were announced."102 Public lands are suffering from the effects of the illegal marijuana grows long after the crop has been harvested .
re: "suffering" -
Prohibitionists claim use of currently illegal drugs causes crime, death, illness,
lunacy, mania, melancholy, and all means of sin and degradation.
(Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )
(9) The cyanobacteria outbreaks threaten public health for swimmers and kill aquatic invertebrates that salmon and steelhead trout eat .
re: "threaten" -
The rhetoric of prohibition asserts that insanity, crime, and
violence are caused by drugs, or are controlled by prohibition.
(Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )
re: "public health" -
The health of the "community" (read: government) is assured, prohibitionists
explain, because drug users are punished. Jailing drug users is thus
painted as upholding society.
(Survival of Society (propaganda theme 3) )
(10) Officials warn residents in later summer and fall to stay out of certain stretches of water and keep their dogs out ' eleven dogs died from ingesting the algae since 2001 .
re: "Officials" -
Instead, therefore, of letting the public act on all the facts which
the generals knew, the authorities presented only certain facts,
and these only in such a way as would be most likely to steady the people.
(Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion, 1921)
(14) According to California State officials, a pot plant uses six gallons of water every day.106 19 ....... o The situation has become so bad in California that public officials are now focusing on both legal and illegal grows .
re: "officials" -
Public credulity accepted these stories. The highest powers in the state
welcomed them without hesitation and endorsed them with their authority.
(Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion, 1921)
(17) Congressional representatives want to give $3 million to the DEA to get rid of large pot-operations in public forests.107 o A study by biologists from the University of California Davis found that potent rat poisons used on large-scale marijuana farms sprinkled throughout the forest lands in the state may be killing off a rare forest carnivore .
re: "DEA" -
Power is addictive, and it corrupts.
And those who have power fear losing it.
-- Richard A. Viguerie
(18) The study documents the deaths of fishers, reclusive members of the Miustelid family that are candidates for protection under the Endangered Species Act .
re: "deaths" -
Prohibition propaganda rarely misses an opportunity to link
crime, violence, and insanity with "drugs". The propagandist insinuates
that prohibited drugs cause evil, and if it weren't for "drugs"
bad things would not exist.
(Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )
(20) Most of the deaths occurred between mid-April and mid-May, which overlapped with the time period that marijuana farmers used the high levels of commercial pesticides and rodenticides .
re: "deaths" -
It is prohibition, claim prohibitionists, that saves people from drug crazed,
whacked out, high flying drug users.
(Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )
(29) An additional $5,000 is needed to restore the area to its natural state.109 The detection and dismantling of these operations have become increasingly dangerous through the introduction and presence of firearms and "booby-traps" deployed by illicit growers to protect their capital investment .
re: "dangerous" -
Drugs, claim the prohibitionist, cause insanity,
violence, and terrible sickness.
(Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )
(30) In addition, Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) have realized that the lucrative California marijuana cultivation business eliminates the need to breach the southern border with contraband .
re: "Drug Trafficking Organizations", "DTOs" -
Drug war propaganda insinuates drugs are evil, because they
are linked with hated groups.
(Hated Groups (propaganda theme 1) )
(31) The DTOs have tapped the expanding and voracious consumer appetite through outlets provided by the dispensaries, generating millions of dollars in cash which is easily smuggled south of the border back to the DTOs .
re: "DTOs" -
The rhetoric of prohibition will try to use labeling and
guilt by association to link drugs and drug users with hated groups.
(Hated Groups (propaganda theme 1) )
(32) A marked increase in violent crime throughout Mexico has been driven, in part, by the kidnapping and forced servitude of Mexican nationals in working the illicit cultivation operations in northern California (and elsewhere) to avoid retribution to themselves or extended families by the DTOs .
re: "DTOs" -
Prohibition rhetoric often attempts to associate hated groups
with targeted drugs.
(Hated Groups (propaganda theme 1) )
re: "violent", "kidnapping", "crime" -
Drugs, the prohibitionist explains, are a wicked bane on modern man.
If not for the noble drug war (i.e. jailing drug users), exclaims
the propagandist, then people will run amok, and violence, death, psychosis,
and plague shall cover the land.
(Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )
(34) After they moved in their dream house became a nightmare .
re: "nightmare" -
drug war rhetoric transforms drugs users into scapegoats --
(Richard L Miller, Drug Warriors and their Prey)
(Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )
(43) John Martyny, houses and other buildings used to grow marijuana indoors contain high levels of mold, which may pose a threat to residents living there and to law enforcement agents investigating them .
re: "threat" -
Drugs, the prohibitionist explains, are a wicked bane on modern man.
If not for the noble drug war (i.e. jailing drug users), exclaims
the propagandist, then people will run amok, and violence, death, psychosis,
and plague shall cover the land.
(Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )
(47) "I think that what's so alarming to us is that such a huge amount of pesticide material could be transferred," said Dr .
re: "alarming" -
Prohibitionist propaganda claims that horrible dangers
are caused by "drugs."
(Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )
(50) In Oregon, where voters legalized 'medical" marijuana for qualifying patients in November 1998, patients must grow their own marijuana or have a licensed grower provide it for them through an unpaid arrangement .
re: "legalized", "legalized 'medical" marijuana" -
The ancient and first commandment (Mat 22:38, Mark 12:28) is,
"Thou shall not legalize the herb." (Gen 1:29-30)
To be seen of men (Mat 23:5),
thou shalt make thy righteousness (Isa 64:6)
of thine holy rulers (1Chron 21:1, Mat 4:8, Luke 4:5, 1Jn 2:18)
shine forth over the wickedness of marijuana! Pharmakeia evil-doers
(that is to say, marijuana users -
sorcerers and witches all; Gal 5:20,Rev 21:8,22:15),
shall be arrested (Luke 12:11), scourged (Mark 15:15, John 19:1),
imprisoned (Mat 25:36), and enslaved (1Tim 1:10, Rev 18:13),
for ever and ever (Rev 19:3).
For to punish marijuana users is like unto
the Righteousness of the Saints. (Rev 19:8)
Amen!
(Total Prohibition or Access (propaganda theme 7) )
(52) Michael Dingeman, Director of the Oregon State Police Drug Enforcement Section, many calls from cardholders are about never receiving the marijuana from their designated growers .
re: "Police", "Drug Enforcement" -
Power is sweet; it is a drug, the desire for which increases with a habit.
-- Bertrand Russell
(57) Medical Marijuana has made it easier for criminals to grow it."116 o Sergeant Erik Fisher of the Drug Enforcement Section of the Oregon State Police says that "the perception of the marijuana drug trade is mellower than other drug operations is wrong."
re: "criminals", "perception" -
Prohibitionist propaganda claims that horrible dangers
are caused by "drugs."
(Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )
re: "Police", "Drug Enforcement" -
"for other people, this would be wrong,
but because I have the best interests of my followers at heart,
it's ok for me to...."
-- How Power Corrupts Leaders, Ronald E. Riggio
(59) "The other striking trend has been the increase in home invasion robberies of medical marijuana folks, and how absolutely violent they can be .
re: "violent" -
Drugs, scream prohibitionists, cause all bad things in life: crime,
violence, insanity, etc. If not for prohibition (i.e., jailing drug
users), then criminality, violence and psychotic behavior would explode
upon the land, the prohibitionist assures us.
(Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )
MAPInc Bookmarks:
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
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(video)
EXP - explicit prohibition propaganda (explicit_propaganda)
GRP - hated group (propaganda_theme1)
MAD - madness, violence, illness (propaganda_theme2)
SOC - survival of society (propaganda_theme3)
USE - gateway, use is abuse (propaganda_theme4)
KID - children (propaganda_theme5)
WAR - demonize, war, epidemic (propaganda_theme6)
TOT - total prohibition (propaganda_theme7)
DIS - dissent opposed (propaganda_theme8)
