As we recently learned, growing marijuana indoors uses up a whole lot of energy. Possibly as much as one percent of the entire country’s energy consumption. But what if marijuana were legal and therefore didn’t need to be grown indoors?
An infographic created by Lumin Interactive and designer Jacob O’Neal, and comes with a not all that surprising answer. According to the infographic, commercially growing marijuana outdoors could reduce energy use by 75 percent. Or 0.75 percent of the nation’s entire energy consumption. But there’s more.
“The carbon footprint of covert cannabis production might also be easily offset by the energy used to enforce the laws against it,” the infographic reads, “electricity for the some 60,000 inmates in prison on marijuana related charges at any time, and the fuel for the police cruisers that brought in the offenders, among other things…”
Currently 17 states legally allow marijuana cultivation.