{"id":7863,"date":"2017-11-16T19:52:15","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T19:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com?p=2859745&amp;preview_id=2859745"},"modified":"2017-11-16T19:52:15","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T19:52:15","slug":"op-ed-five-years-after-amendment-64-colorados-marijuana-crop-is-getting-greener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/op-ed-five-years-after-amendment-64-colorados-marijuana-crop-is-getting-greener\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-ed: Five years after Amendment 64, Colorado\u2019s marijuana crop is getting greener"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/op-ed-five-years-after-amendment-64-colorados-marijuana-crop-is-getting-greener\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-10 large-centered small-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta-date\">Published: Nov 16, 2017, 10:24 am \u2022 Updated: Nov 16, 2017, 10:24 am<span class=\"single-comments-link\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <strong>Nick Johnson<\/strong>, <em> Special To The Cannabist<\/em><\/p>\n<p>After marijuana\u2019s November 2012 victory at the Colorado ballot box, voters and state officials seemed oblivious to the fact that they had just green-lighted a huge agricultural industry.<\/p>\n<p>Five years after Coloradans legalized recreational marijuana with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2012\/11\/06\/coloradans-say-yes-to-recreational-use-of-marijuana\/\">the passage of Amendment 64<\/a>, the state is more familiar with marijuana\u2019s environmental impact, prompting some positive change in regulation and within the cannabis industry itself.<\/p>\n<p>But the work isn\u2019t finished.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado was in unchartered waters as it embarked on implementation of Amendment 64 in late 2012 and 2013, but there was still reason in those early days to believe that environmental issues would prove paramount in the legalization of recreational marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>The state could have looked to California \u2013 at the time, 16 years into medical marijuana legalization \u2013 for a glimpse at the task at hand.\u00a0For instance,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/evanmills.lbl.gov\/pubs\/pdf\/cannabis-carbon-footprint.pdf\">an April 2012 peer-reviewed study published in the journal Energy Policy<\/a>\u00a0determined that California\u2019s indoor marijuana crop emitted as much CO<sup>2<\/sup>\u00a0as 3 million cars. The report found the grow ops were contributing to the climate shift that exacerbated the effects of drought.<\/p>\n<p>Four months prior to the 2012 election, the\u00a0<em>Denver Post<\/em>\u00a0reported\u00a0that many of the state\u2019s farmers, ranchers and towns suffered from \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2012\/07\/08\/colorado-water-shortages-leave-farmers-ranchers-desperate\/\">severe to moderate drought<\/a>.\u201d The reporting highlighted concerns over water supplies and conservation efforts from across the parched state, from Greeley to Steamboat to Aspen. Development and population growth along the Front Range were straining Colorado\u2019s water supply just as a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2017\/02\/24\/colorado-river-global-warming\/\">warming climate was drying up<\/a>\u00a0more and more of that supply.<\/p>\n<p>Despite existing evidence of marijuana\u2019s environmental effects, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper\u2019s Task Force on the Implementation of Amendment 64 failed to make any environmental recommendations in its March 2013\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colorado.gov\/cms\/forms\/dor-tax\/A64TaskForceFinalReport.pdf\">final report<\/a>. In contrast, Washington State, which also legalized marijuana in 2012, commissioned a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lcb.wa.gov\/publications\/Marijuana\/BOTEC%20reports\/5d_Environmental_Risks_and_Opportunities_in_Cannabis_Cultivation_Revised.pdf\">third-party environmental impact report<\/a>\u00a0published in September 2013 and allowed outdoor cannabis cultivation.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado did neither.<\/p>\n<p>The state restricted marijuana grows to \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colorado.gov\/pacific\/marijuanainfodenver\/marijuana-retailers-home-growers\">a fully enclosed and locked space<\/a>,\u201d effectively banning outdoor grows and some greenhouse facilities that could have lessened the industry\u2019s carbon footprint. In Denver, retail marijuana outfits\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2015\/10\/20\/denver-real-estate-colorado-marijuana-industry\/42519\/\">snapped up warehouse space like candy<\/a>, and the unsustainable agricultural model developed during prohibition dominated Colorado\u2019s legal cannabis industry.<\/p>\n<p>Pesticide use forced the state to consider environmental regulation of cannabis cultivation. In spring 2015 \u2013 more than a year after recreational marijuana sales launched in Colorado \u2014\u00a0\u00a0Denver Department of Environmental Health (DEH)\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2015\/07\/20\/marijuana-pesticides\/38233\/\">quarantined or destroyed<\/a>\u00a0tens of thousands of plants from 11 growing facilities after inspectors suspected use of unauthorized pesticides.<\/p>\n<p>The raids prompted Hickenlooper in November 2015 to issue an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colorado.gov\/pacific\/sites\/default\/files\/D%202015-015%20MJ%20Pesticides_2_1.pdf\">executive order<\/a>\u00a0 directing state agencies to address pesticide use on marijuana crops, and by January 2016 Colorado lawmakers drafted Senate Bill 16-015, which called for the state\u2019s agriculture department to clarify which pesticides could be applied to legal marijuana crops. Governor Hickenlooper\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/leg.colorado.gov\/bills\/sb16-015\">signed the bill<\/a>\u00a0into law that March.<\/p>\n<p>Attention to energy use came later that summer, when Xcel energy officials reported that marijuana growing facilities\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2015\/07\/01\/marijuana-electricity-demand-denver-led-lights-clean-power-plan\/37304\/\">accounted for about half<\/a>\u00a0of a 1.2-percent increase in Denver\u2019s electrical demand.<\/p>\n<p>As marijuana\u2019s energy use continued to make headlines, the DEH put together the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.denvergov.org\/content\/denvergov\/en\/environmental-health\/environmental-quality\/cannabis-sustainability.html\">Cannabis Sustainability Workgroup<\/a>\u00a0\u201cto determine best practices\u201d for the industry. Among the group\u2019s members are Nick Hice and Kayvan Khalatbari, founding partners of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverreliefconsulting.com\/\">Denver Relief<\/a>, one of the city\u2019s oldest and most prominent advocates for sustainable cannabis; John-Paul Maxfield, founder of the Organic Cannabis Association (now known as the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cannabiscertificationcouncil.org\/\">Cannabis Certification Council<\/a>); and Amy Tancig-Andrle of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.leagledenver.com\/?age-verified=7d87c09845\">L\u2019Eagle<\/a>, a self-proclaimed \u201csustainable and zero-waste\u201d marijuana producer. In 2016 the DEH also began hosting the annual\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cannabissustainability.org\/\">Cannabis Sustainability Symposium<\/a>, and manuals for best practices are now\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.denvergov.org\/content\/dam\/denvergov\/Portals\/771\/documents\/EQ\/MJ%20Sustainability\/Draft%20Cannabis%20Environmental%20BMP%20Guide.pdf\">publicly available<\/a>\u00a0on the DEH website.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, as Colorado\u2019s water crisis continues to unfold, Denver Water has\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/07\/14\/denver-recycled-water-marijuana-grow\/83775\/\">plans to send more recycled water<\/a>\u00a0to cannabis crops, and the utility\u2019s officials have recently been impressed with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/krcc.org\/post\/marijuana-cultivation-and-water-conservation\">growers\u2019 own water-recycling efforts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Experience and adaptation have helped Colorado and its five-year-old cannabis industry correct the initial neglect of environmental concerns, making Colorado cannabis far more sustainable in 2017 than it was when rec shops first opened in 2014. Even some\u00a0marijuana consumers\u00a0are becoming <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2016\/01\/04\/organic-marijuana-outdoor-pesticides\/38301\/\">more selective about the weed they purchase<\/a> at dispensaries, a trend that will hopefully continue as the industry matures.<\/p>\n<p>But there is work still to do. The majority of Colorado\u2019s marijuana is still grown indoors, and too many growers still rely on non-organic fertilizers and pesticides to keep their plants healthy. Growers and other members of the industry must continue to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2017\/04\/14\/making-the-cannabis-industry-greener\/\">put pressure<\/a>\u00a0on their fellow canna-businesses to incorporate <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/01\/19\/organic-marijuana-cultivation-commercial-usda-nop\/68305\/\">more sustainable production methods<\/a>. Meanwhile, the industry still faces the specter of federal enforcement via the Controlled Substances Act under U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has repeatedly made it known he is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2016\/11\/18\/trump-attorney-general-marijuana-legalization-enforcement\/67892\/\">no friend of Mary Jane<\/a>. Even a partial shutdown of legalization would cripple recent efforts to make the cannabis crop more sustainable.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, though, developments in Colorado\u2019s cannabis industry over the past five years suggest that the state has learned a great deal about the agricultural issues surrounding cannabis. If current trends continue, Colorado\u2019s cannabis industry will soon become a worthy model for other states seeking to re-legalize marijuana.<\/p>\n<p><em>Nick Johnson is an historian based in Longmont, Colorado. He is the author of the new book <a href=\"http:\/\/osupress.oregonstate.edu\/book\/grass-roots\">Grass Roots: A History of Cannabis in the American West<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .row --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Five years after Coloradans legalized recreational marijuana, the state is more familiar with marijuana&#8217;s environmental impact, prompting positive changes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[45,6811,7392,376,7393,6964,2097,6813,77,6933,5667,9,5019,6786,1,3,7314,7356,61,1736],"tags":[2628,6816,7394,2954,7395,6967,4665,6818,2655,6934,5673,5022,6793,7316,7358],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7863"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}