Monday, December 19, 2016

Cannabis Packaging Should Be More Earth-Friendly



Article by Draeko

Having danced and partied in the woods with hippies, having meditated with yogis or having engaged in deep conversations with those “average folk” who fall in between, it has been my takeaway that the cannabis movement has always, in essence, been about appreciation for life and living, for the planet. Yes. After partaking, people do find some increase in their communal spirits. It has been my experience that they also tend to become acutely sensitive to their local and global environment.

For approximately two years now, cannabis has been legal in Washington State and Colorado. Both industries are now thriving respectively with considerable profit margins. As I, among the millions of liberated partakers, walked into my first store, purchased my first pre-roll (they used to call them joints when I was growing up), I was in awe of the very creative names, and the amount of product. Everything was neatly in place, organized, and pharmaceutically clean, a virtual assembly line of energetic or relaxed connections. I didn’t notice it until I’d gotten home, opened the pre-roll, enjoyed my tote, and went to toss its container.

It didn’t go into the recycle bin. It didn’t go into the food waste bin. This meant that the container went into the garbage bin. This meant a land-fill somewhere. Right? On my next few trips back to the store, I noticed that every container I could make out was petroleum-based. Where was the earth-friendly packaging? Wasn’t one of the primary arguments for again legalizing industrial hemp and recreational marijuana (different cannabis strains) in the US its ecological benefits? Where was that “connection to Gaia”? As the dreadlocked budtender sold me my doobie, I couldn’t help but wonder: Now how did this happen?

Many months later at Vela (a blog which has often featured speakers and other events), I sat and listened as Liquor and Cannabis Board Director, Rick Garza explained Marijuana Legalization, Implementing I-502 in Washington State. As explained, it became apparent the many reasons why there were some controversial decisions to make legalization possible, an article within itself. My question to Mr. Garza, however, involved whether there was some measure to make the wrappings into more eco-friendly materials. Apparently, there was so much going into ensuring the Feds that wrappings weren’t enticing to minors that the environmental aspect was reluctantly kept from the process. Basically, it was really just a case of walking on eggshells (eagle eggs) to get that still-tentative Federal approval.So now I know the ‘Why’. What I’d like to know now is the ‘When’. When I asked Mr. Garza, he returned with, “What do you see?” In retrospect, I would have liked to have responded with a hemp solution as a biodegradable possibility, using the product to contain the product.

Perhaps, now that Washington and Colorado have proven the packaging secure, it is time to work on securing the future of the planet's ecology, and stop contributing to the Great Garbage Belt.

That would certainly improve the common high.

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