For thousands of miles along the west coast, skies are red, orange, or gray with the dust of ash. It’s apocalyptic.  People are losing their homes and more than a few people have died in the three states which bookend our west coast.  Watching these catastrophic flames begs the answer to a new question.  How much global warming and climate change could have been avoided if California, Washington and Oregon hadn’t legalized pot? 

The track of west coast fires follows the trail of growth in the massive marijuana industry over 25 years. It began north of San Francisco, moved further south along the central coast of California and up into Oregon and Washington. Washington, which made pot legal in 2012, hit a historical moment with more than 330,000 acres burning in 24 hours, more than in the entire fire seasons of 12 out of the last 18 years. Not until the last few years has Oregon, which legalized marijuana in 2015, been a large part of the fire problem.  Oregon has a huge surplus of marijuana.

At the moment, four cities on the “West Coast of Weed” have the world’s worst air quality.  Please tell Congress not to allow expansion of the marijuana industry. Continue reading Do marijuana grows lead to fires and global warming? →