It is estimated that around 1% of all electricity usage in the USA goes to indoor growing of cannabis. The vast majority of cannabis is grown indoors to elude law enforcement scrutiny, though some medical MJ is outdoor, as well as some black market product.
This extra burden on our states’ electricity grid, especially in already-taxed states like California and Arizona, raises prices on the rest of us. It creates a lot of inefficiency in a system. Just imagine a world where all of our tomatoes were grown indoors for some arbitrary reason; it would be a huge waste of electricity.
... around Denver, the overwhelming majority of growers are still producing cannabis in warehouses. Growing in warehouses has some advantages. Growers contend that they grow more harvests annually -- by some accounts up to five and a half harvests a year. However, that comes at a price. Some say as much as 10 percent of electricity in Denver is going to indoor grow operations. link
For both cost and environmental purposes, we need to shift cannabis production outdoors to the extent it is feasible. This means, ultimately, moving a big chunk of production to outdoor greenhouses. The largest public medical marijuana provider in Canada (Tweed) does both indoor and outdoor production. They’re also pioneering aeroponics research to reduce water usage (Northern California has dealt for years with water-use violations by MJ growers).
In an age of increasing drought and infrastructure stress, it’s time to move on from politicians’ jokes and media lames’ puns in their headlines. A booming billion-dollar industry is poised to ramp up its resource usage and we need leaders to plan for it.