"Marijuana home explosions should be a call for legal regulation"

"I opened up my news feed from the weekend last night and found a flurry of stories from around the world discussing how an illegal marijuana grow destroyed a New York City home and killed a firefighter," writes Leigh Coulter of GGS. "Illegal grow-ops may resort to tactics that can be fatal in an effort to hide their activities, and without legal status they do not have access to education and equipment that meets safety standards. Of course, that is not how the international media portrays it:

Marijuana grow-ops spawn lethal explosions across the US
- Global News, Canada

Home-grown dopes: how marijuana labs are causing lethal explosions across the United States
- South China Morning Post, China

Marijuana labs spawn lethal explosions across America
– The Japan Times, Japan

"All of these news outlets picked up the same Associated Press article. The gist of these news stories is that as marijuana legalization spreads so does the dangers. '…marijuana-making methods that are legal in many states — but can also be lethal.' ends the first sentence of the Global News story from October 1st. Then it goes on to broad stroke the dangers 'Indoor marijuana farmers can create potential fire hazards…' and quotes a University of California professor as saying that Indoor gas use is a standard way to grow marijuana, and that by raising the CO2 level, it grows faster, as if this is a special evil way of growing marijuana when in fact CO2 dosing is a standard and safe practice for many commercial plant growers including tomato and pepper growers."

Read the rest of the article here.