Indopedia All Things Marijuana
Photo via moose henderson
California produces 13.5 million tons of cannabis, but only consumes 2.5 million tons of it, according to economists. That means there’s a lot of black market ganja being grown in the Golden State despite the launch of the state’s new legal cannabis market, and more farmers than you might think have no plans to transition into compliance. Comfortable operating in the shadows of the law (as they have been for decades), with no aspirations to get licensed or brand themselves as responsible canna-businesses, some of these cultivators are trespassing on public lands, contaminating the environment, and putting wildlife at risk.
Earlier this month, UC Santa Cruz ecologist Chris Wilmers expressed concern that cannabis cultivation may endanger the area’s native population of mountain lions. He told the Santa Cruz Sentinel that in particular, increased human presence and infrastructure could push human-averse mountain lions out of their habitat. What’s more, anticoagulant rodenticides could harm mountain lions’ immune systems, if not kill them in higher doses, with increased cultivation.
With anticoagulants, organisms like rats eat them, hemorrhage,…
