I think pot should be legal because I don’t want to keep paying to lock up people who smoke it. What an incredibly stupid waste of money. 

You know, whenever pot is mentioned on a newsboard, the comment section winds up being the strongest argument for enforcement.

Comments on a blog are a reason to continue prohibition?

“Pot is great for the earth!” Really? Ripping up the native ecosystem to plant some subtropical exotic cash crop that needs LOTS of water and fertilizer is great?

In areas where pot is legal, pot farming is conducted more or less sustainably, depending on the farmer and their skills and philosophy. Just like on any other farm growing any other crop.

Your point fails.

Are you the same people who hate meat because of all the water and fertilizer used to grow the corn that feeds the cows?

Nope. Most people who smoke pot eat meat.

You’re generalizing and stereotyping.

Your point fails.

You do realize that pot is more water- and nitrogen-intensive than corn? And growing it outdoors only works in warm, wet climates. At least post-harvest, cornstalks and leaves are plowed under to compost during the winter, along with lots and lots of cattle manure. I doubt if open-grown pot ever would be treated this way – certainly not in arid western states or above the Mason-Dixon line.

Again, if you would look at how pot is grown in countries where it is legal, none of this is true. Your point fails. Again.

“Pot smokers are ambitious and hardworking!”  Really? Because all of the potheads I’ve ever had the joy of working with were blowhards who would spend most of the day derailing meetings with their political rants (usually right-wing, oddly enough), and holding forth on how blindingly smart they were from their cubical castles.

Ah, I see what you did there: you said “pot smokers” in one sentence and then “potheads” in the next, the one where you generalized and relied on stereotypes to make your point. “Pot smokers” are to “pot heads” as “people who have a glass or two of wine with dinner” are to “people who drink a fifth of vodka every night and die of cirrhosis.”

Your point fails.

 ”Industrial Hemp could solve all of the world’s problems, only a vast government conspiracy keeps farmers from growing it!” 

Strawman.

 And NO – the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were NOT written on hemp – they were written on PARCHMENT. Parchment is the tough, see-through layer between a calf’s hide and it’s muscles.

This is the only thing you wrote that is true. The only thing. Everything else was a steaming pile of dubious Archie Bunker-style ranting.

“Pot is great for the earth!” 

Really? Ripping up the native ecosystem to plant some subtropical exotic cash crop that needs LOTS of water and fertilizer is great? Are you the same people who hate meat because of all the water and fertilizer used to grow the corn that feeds the cows? You do realize that pot is more water- and nitrogen-intensive than corn? And growing it outdoors only works in warm, wet climates. At least post-harvest, cornstalks and leaves are plowed under to compost during the winter, along with lots and lots of cattle manure. I doubt if open-grown pot ever would be treated this way – certainly not in arid western states or above the Mason-Dixon line. And no, cows can’t be fed pot – it’s too fibrous and low in protein. The cows would get gas and diarrhea, then lose weight. Goats, maybe – but not cows.

“Pot smokers are ambitious and hardworking!”

 Really? Because all of the potheads I’ve ever had the joy of working with were blowhards who would spend most of the day derailing meetings with their political rants (usually right-wing, oddly enough), and holding forth on how blindingly smart they were from their cubical castles. Now, if you asked them, they were the hardest-working employees and the whole business would collapse without them – even though everyone knew they were unreliable and tried to avoid contact with them. And I’ve noticed that smokers tend to have train wrecks for personal lives – they can never seem to figure out that their vanishing partners, criminal kids, and those constant, ‘freak’ car accidents might have a common cause. Just because you don’t notice the problems your habit causes, doesn’t mean that others aren’t bothered by it.

 ”Industrial Hemp could solve all of the world’s problems, only a vast government conspiracy keeps farmers from growing it!” 

No, no it doesn’t. First of all, while cannabis is a member of the hemp family, not all hemp is cannabis. I grew up in a part of the U.S. (the cornbelt) where the Navy and Army tried to grow cannabis – on purpose- during World War II. They were trying to grow it for rope. They wound up abandoning all of the thousands of acres they planted because they discovered too late that the poor quality of cannabis fiber – too short, too coarse, too brittle – made it useless for rope. Ropes would have to remain made of sisal grown in tropical countries vulnerable to invasion by Axis powers. Hemp makes crappy paper – it’s worthless even as art/craft paper, it’s certainly no good for computer printers, rolling papers, toilet paper, or even brown paper bags. As a textile, it falls apart when it gets wet – which is why burlap bags aren’t made from it. If pot were worth growing for any purpose other than smoking, farmers would storm congress to grow it. And NO – the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were NOT written on hemp – they were written on PARCHMENT. Parchment is the tough, see-through layer between a calf’s hide and it’s muscles.

So, what’s worse, smoking a couple of doobies each day, or driving to work?

I suspect that leaving your porch lights on all night produce more CO2 emissions than a good spliff.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2010/jun/04/carbon-footprint-beer

Pot is illegal BECAUSE of the paper industry. Go read history. You can blame the Hearst family because they were evil greedy bitches.

I know, I have, and I just did. Did you somehow get the impression that my comment was implying anything else?

I have a huge garden on my patio, but I’d be worried about theft.

I imagine this would be a function of your neighborhood and the visibility/accessibility of your patio garden, but do people habitually scope out backyard gardens in hopes of pilfering some weed?  I mean, I know people with the proper credential can legally grow (well, “legally” on the state level, if not on the federal level, but yknowhutimean), but it seems like one would have to be a desperately energetic thief to be reconnoitering and raiding neighborhood backyard gardens for vulnerable plants.

Then again, my fence isn’t as low as some people’s.

One piece that the story mentioned was how they got their workers. They would drive out to Arizona and pick up some illegals on the street. They would blindfold them, and transport them in a van with the windows blacked out. They were told what they’d be doing, but not where they were going. These guys would work for a 6 month shift, and then get back in the blacked out van with the blindfolds and go back to Arizona.

I suspect this is not a particularly unusual story. These guys it sounded like were treated fairly well, but I’m sure that’s not the case for all workers. Being in a country where you are illegal and don’t speak the language, and not even knowing exactly where you are is a really vulnerable position to be in.

(I thought you were talking about joint paper. :-) )

Outdoor grow ops divert from stream without consideration to other water users (including wildlife) and add run off.

Then we can grow it outside.
The weed will absorb CO2.We can burn it and smoke it and then exhale the CO2.It all balances out man. 

If the stems and leaves are returned to the soil as compost, I would surmise that most of the carbon is being sequestered.

I’m no biochem expert but I’m pretty sure decomposing vegetation releases a lot of carbon too. At any rate I’m sure it doesn’t sequester nearly enough to offset all the energy it takes to grow the plant (under artificial lighting, anyway).

…how does legalizing pot change the paper industry?

Ask William Randolph Hearst. Our government’s stance on marijuana is largely due to the fear campaign his media empire waged to protect Hearst’s (wood-based) paper mill holdings.