Who really wins with indoor marijuana cultivation ("Green from Gold in a Gray Area," Nov. 8)? Your recent article omitted a chief profiteer, PG&E, as well as the big losers -- us.
Let's do the arithmetic: Grow rooms typically use about 5,000 watts for 12 hours a day for seven weeks to "flower" plants. This totals 600 hours of use, or 3,000 kilowatt hours. Prior to flowering the plants are vegetated for six weeks under the same wattage for 18 hours a day, for a total of approximately 3,800 kilowatt hours. Add to this the juice for rooting clones, fans, dehumidifiers, and pumps. If propane or methane is burned to generate CO2 keep that in mind.
Under these conditions, and experienced grower can produce maybe four pounds of dried "bud." This translates into roughly 1,700 kilowatt-hours per pound or 100 kilowatt-hours per ounce. Now lumtiply all of the above by four, since growers repeat the cycle every 12-14 weeks.
Consider that "indoor" fetches way higher prices in the marketplace, especially in trendy urban centers. This preference is often justified by ranking THC content as if that is a benchmark of strength, rather than the combination of alkaloids, terpenes, and other constituents that, together, result in the marijuana experience.
I wonder how many folks have entered a "grow-room" and experienced the intense electrical vibe the plants endure. Contrast that offensive "energy" with an outdoor or greenhouse grow, in which plants are bathed in, and thrive under, natural sunlight conditions.
Modern greenhouse growing in a relatively small area next to a residence can produce an annual yield of over a pound per plant of very high quality bud. Greenhouse windows, not photovoltaic panels or fossil fuels are the way to grow.
Marijuana gets you high and supposedly raises consciousness, but grown indoors it most certainly gets us hot. So when all of you marijuana users and sellers - with your politically aware opposition to greenhouse gases, nuclear energy, dams, rising seas and climate change insist on "indoor" you might as well kiss all that you love goodbye, while PG&E goes to the bank.
I submit that the outdoor bud has far healthier qualities than indoor, and that we should promote outdoor as if our lives depended on it. We should outlaw indoor grows.
Ken Miller, M.D. McKinleyville The Journal - Letters
I guess this is why he was promoting the brave "entrepreneurs" in the Op-Ed below.... How many of those "indoor" growers are using his 215 prescriptions? Have fun, guys.
So I guess if you sell a car that can go 90 MPH then you are promoting speeding?
ReplyDeleteSubdivided TPZ properties could lead to quite of bit of permitting opportunities for Ken.
ReplyDeleteNo dog in this fight. No pot in my pipe either, not that I haven't smoked my share in the '70s, back when a few friends could smoke a couple fatties and still remember their names and the way home, but..
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's the ADD, but my consciousness was never raised. I just got goofier than I normally am.
Stuff is too potent for my taste anymore, I don't have an affliction that calls for it, it is still illegal, (I think), so I have no opinion.
Well, I suppose except for what I just wrote. Oops
Best to everyone,
Wollf
Outlaw indoor grows? And this from a Prop 215 dispenser? Well, not your average 215 dispenser but one prone to making huge personal judgments about other people's lives that border on fascism. Ken, did you ever consider some people only have an indoor growing situation because they aren't doctors able to afford the multiple acreages you have for example.
ReplyDeleteSome compassion might be in order, herr doktor.
Stephen,
ReplyDeleteIs Ken Miller really a Prop. 215 "dispenser" (as in bags it up, hands it out, collects the money)? Or, do you mean he's a "recommend-er" (as in "I'm a doctor & I say pot will be good for whatever it is that's ailing you so here's my written recommendation for you to take down to The Pot Store. That'll be two-hundred & fifty dollars, please!"
There is a difference & it really does matter, especially if Drrrr. Miller intends to keep his license.
He's the latter - and he swears he never "prescribes" Pot... He is also the guy who was in the DA's office drafting the Pl suit with Tim Stoen (which he initially denied, but later had to cop to)... He is also the cop-hater... He is also Humboldt Watershed Council and co-founder of BACH (Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters), he is the face behind the longstanding and ongoing, unrelenting attacks on Palco... but he is known as the 215 doc.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny in his piece on TPZ how he talks about the entrepreneur buying up TPZ land (the one with apparent large scale pot grows, lots and lots and lots of greenhouses, and roads cut into the hillsides, water being drawn from the creeks, all the kind of stuff he hates Palco for), it's funny that he now decries indoor grows, (and presumably the fires that result) for which partial blame can be laid at his feet. I'm sure he would deny that, too.
Just an all around good guy, huh, Rose? Lake & Mendocino counties have a few of him, too.
ReplyDeleteI think I explained here before why doctors cannot legally "prescribe" marijuana - only "recommend" it so it stands to reason that Miller would deny prescribing it. Does he say he recommends it?
You know, of course, that I'm being facetious, right?
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work. I LOVE your blog!!!
Facetious about Miller being a good guy, I mean.
ReplyDelete:) I totally got that! You always bring such good information to the discussion, always good to hear from you.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Ken Miller is on the short list of people that, if we could run them out of town on a rail, the county would be better off for it. Just my opinion. :)
I think calling Ken Miller a cop hater is false. He called for higher wages and more training for cops. You can spin that to mean that he hates cops, Rose, but it's a stretch. Not that it matters to someone committed to spreading hate through mis-information. It's just that his concern for the community is larger and more inclusive than yours. I have never heard him call for running anyone out of town on a rail. Maybe you should be tarred and feathered?
ReplyDeleteIt's my opinion too Rose.
ReplyDeleteAnd calling Miller a cop hater is right on the mark.
2:58pm must be Hearaldo posting anonymous.
You haven't bagged anything with your opinion gun so far, 4:58. But, keep at it. Ready fire aim!
ReplyDeleteI think you mean ready aim fire you retard.
ReplyDeleteNo. I meant what I said and I said what I mean - ready fire aim.
ReplyDeleteSome of your enablers are more than a little challenged, Rose.