Pot growers put huge energy demand on the grid

Utilities should view legalization as an opportunity, not a threat.

Maybe you’re sitting on the couch right now, reading this as you light up a joint. And maybe you’re in one of the states where what you’re doing is no longer a crime, so you’re feeling pretty good because your leisure activity will no longer lure the police into your home.

Sorry to harsh your buzz, but that marijuana, legal or not, probably sucked up a lot of electricity during its cultivation. One study estimates that it takes as much energy to produce 18 pints of beer as it does just one joint (and that doesn't factor in the energy used to make the three Sara Lee cheesecakes thawing in the fridge for when the munchies kick in). That “green” you’re smoking isn’t all that green, after all.

With medicinal and recreational marijuana legal in most of the West, utilities...

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