It has been argued that marijuana has a lot of medicinal value in it. Medical marijuana has been considered as a healer as it effectively helps to calm severe pain, serve as a muscle relaxant, help in managing nausea, and even help in the treatment of glaucoma. This, however, does not make weed the bridge to good health. While cannabis smells amazing to some people, not everyone is the biggest weed smell fan which is also why some consumers prefer cannabis edibles!
The environment around us is always the recipient of the decisions we make and the impact of our actions will always be seen and felt at some point in time. Be that as it may, here are 3 ways that the legalization of marijuana can impact the environment:
1. It Will Cause A Water Imbalance
The goal of legalizing marijuana is one and that is to commercialize it and make money. People more so policymakers and supporters of the weed legalizing agenda are ignorant to the fact that marijuana has great potential to negatively affect the environment and cause a huge imbalance on the ecosystem.
In-Depth research done on the growth of weed shows that a mature single marijuana plant will consume around 23 liters of water on a single day. That’s a whole lot of water going to a single plant. The kind of impact that this would have during dry seasons when water levels are wanting is extremely disastrous more so for marine life.
2. It Will Cause Huge Damage On The Landscape
Forests have great value in the world as a whole. The legalization of marijuana will give more people ground to plant it and the result of this will be forest fragmentation by breaking up large connected forests into small patches thereby limiting the habitation of wildlife. With forest fragmentation comes stream modification where the natural flow of water is altered.
Soil erosion will also become evident and surrounding areas where weed is grown will become prone to landslides. Weed farming coupled with improper irrigation will result in forest mammal poisoning through the use of rodenticide pesticide on the weed plant.
3. Massive Energy Consumption
Legalization of marijuana will give people the leeway to practice artificial indoor growth of weed which in real sense requires a whole lot of electricity in order to accomplish effectively. From the air conditioners to the dehumidifiers to the high-intensity bulbs to the ventilation, a lot of energy will be used in this process.
Looking at this from a bigger perspective brings us to the realization that approximately 15 million carbon dioxide tonnes will be emitted into the atmosphere which will amount to massive pollution on the environment. All these energy consumption and environmental pollution stemming from indoor weed growth are extremely harmful to the environment.
Conclusion
The move by different countries to legalize marijuana may appear as a wise decision to the policymakers but is in real sense a time bomb waiting to blow up and mess us the environment.
Worse still is the impact that legalization of weed will have on people who smoke it on a daily basis all in the name of recreation. What is really worrying is the increased cases of weed addiction that will be recorded when different states agree to legalize marijuana.