The Environmental Impact of Cannabis Liberalization
Anthony Silvaggio
Abstract
This chapter examines California’s 20-year experiment with cannabis liberalization under federal prohibition, focusing on the unintended environmental consequences of cannabis policy. The cannabis industry in Northern California emerged during the back-to-the-land movement of the late 1960s, when mostly well-educated whites left the city to set up homesteads in the remote counties of Northern California where land was abundant and cheap. Prior to 1980, back-to-the-landers were able to cultivate cannabis with little fear of arrest, as cannabis policing was almost nonexistent in the region. In 1983, California governor George Deukmejian established the cannabis eradication program known as Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP). In 1996, California became the first in the United States to legalize medical cannabis by passing Proposition 215, the California Compassionate Use Act. In 2003, Senate Bill 420 was passed, addressing a number of legal ambiguities of Proposition 215 regarding cultivation and distribution.