Think about grow-ops next time you use pot

It's time for yet another editorial blaming all the drug-users for the growth of grow-ops and all the hazards that they cause. We have the usual hysteria about mold, electrical fires, and gun-toting crooks guarding their valuable crops. The misguided editorialist then implores the pot-smokers to consider the impact of their illegal habits and put down the bongs for the sake of all humanity.

But the author does make the following concessions at the end of the article:

To you we would say that, yes, we could fully legalize marijuana. And perhaps if we had politicians or a population with enough courage to push for this, we would.

But until that day, perhaps you should consider what your pot smoking does to others when people are willing to break the law to grow it for you. It's not a pretty picture.

I would rather that the policy makers consider the harmful impact of prohibition. If decades of reefer madness, gang violence, criminal records and social stigma are not detterants, than the threat of grow-ops are certainly not going to stop anybody from using marijuana. The market for marijuana is a huge mutli-billion dollar industry and its absurd to think that it is going to go away anytime soon.

The threat of grow-ops is ridiculously overstated. We always hear about the threat of fires due to faulty wiring but I certainly do not recall hearing about an outbreak of grow-op induced fires (correct me if I'm wrong.) Reading about the threat of mold is even more laughable. Should we then fear common potted household plants because of the mold they might be harboring? Marijuana man did a far better job repudiating the grow-op fears than I could ever hope to do.