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| | A study by the [[liberal]] Brookings Institute concluded merely with respect to [[California]]: | | A study by the [[liberal]] Brookings Institute concluded merely with respect to [[California]]: |
| | {{cquote|The scale of the problem is staggering: Even at the end of 2020, illegal cannabis grows sucked up between 11.4 million and 36.3 million liters of water daily! The widespread illegal cultivation contributes to water depletion and conflict over water and has other bad environmental consequences.<ref>https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/04/12/pot-and-water-theft-and-environmental-harms-in-the-us-and-mexico/#:~:text=The%20scale%20of%20the%20problem,has%20other%20bad%20environmental%20consequences.</ref>}} | | {{cquote|The scale of the problem is staggering: Even at the end of 2020, illegal cannabis grows sucked up between 11.4 million and 36.3 million liters of water daily! The widespread illegal cultivation contributes to water depletion and conflict over water and has other bad environmental consequences.<ref>https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/04/12/pot-and-water-theft-and-environmental-harms-in-the-us-and-mexico/#:~:text=The%20scale%20of%20the%20problem,has%20other%20bad%20environmental%20consequences.</ref>}} |
| − | Almonds are considered to be unusually wasteful of water, requiring 5 liters of water to produce merely one almond. But cannibis is just as wasteful of water,<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/26/forget-almonds-look-at-how-much-water-californias-pot-growers-use/</ref> without providing the nourishment that almonds confer. | + | Almonds are considered to be unusually wasteful of water, requiring 5 liters of water to produce merely one almond. But cannabis is just as wasteful of water,<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/26/forget-almonds-look-at-how-much-water-californias-pot-growers-use/</ref> without providing the nourishment that almonds confer. |
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| | + | Merely one [[cannabis]] plant consumes about 1000 gallons of water annually, and during the June-October months when water is most scarce. In 2021, federal interdicting efforts seized 5.53 million unlawful cannabis plants, which therefore were consuming 5.5 billion gallons of water annually.<ref>https://norml.org/blog/2022/06/16/dea-reports-significant-uptick-in-marijuana-related-seizures-arrests/</ref> |
| | A study of [[water theft]] included this observation: | | A study of [[water theft]] included this observation: |
| | {{cquote|Northern California, where highly valuable legalized marijuana production requires large volumes of water, motivating some growers to steal urban and rural water under a low probability of detection.<ref>https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0589-3.epdf?sharing_token=z4HqzWXdqHTFsfff5b3jN9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0PKSBHAtzRLLFHndYPi3aK0JZX_8QFXoi-TzOLWhpQ7zp73oHGOWYMeMvvyEpliT0aNbOfz28OOO_UewdQS38N4NNYN0t0OPdmvhz1n6p_xUYPAXIXz2-95DouVf6g-UJS_hP4iCH0T9TdSQgydh6OfP7k5Xz_tC8VctH_45KqRDY07uoUN141R_lDd5zvgYA0%3D&tracking_referrer=www.washingtonpost.com</ref>}} | | {{cquote|Northern California, where highly valuable legalized marijuana production requires large volumes of water, motivating some growers to steal urban and rural water under a low probability of detection.<ref>https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0589-3.epdf?sharing_token=z4HqzWXdqHTFsfff5b3jN9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0PKSBHAtzRLLFHndYPi3aK0JZX_8QFXoi-TzOLWhpQ7zp73oHGOWYMeMvvyEpliT0aNbOfz28OOO_UewdQS38N4NNYN0t0OPdmvhz1n6p_xUYPAXIXz2-95DouVf6g-UJS_hP4iCH0T9TdSQgydh6OfP7k5Xz_tC8VctH_45KqRDY07uoUN141R_lDd5zvgYA0%3D&tracking_referrer=www.washingtonpost.com</ref>}} |