View Full Version : Concentrated smell from marijuana growing greenhouse?
Some states have legalized marijuana growing. Was there an issue of odour from the greenhouses?
Canada has started the process. Medical use marijuana has strict controls. Personal use - no controls. Locally many are noticing that tomato, cuke,and pepper greenhouses are converting to growing marijuana for personal use but not adding the air filtration to control the very concentrated powerful odour. It's causing anguish and discomfort. Any ideas of phrasing for bylaws or how such issues are managed at the municipal or state level?
We have legalized it in Washington State, and there is an issue with odor.
Local jurisdictions have pretty wide powers to regulate land use here, and my county tried to impose a moratorium on greenhouse permitting for this purpose until we'd had a chance to craft proper regulations. That attempt failed for lack of votes on the council, and so it's still pretty wild-and-wooly. Conditional use permits are required in some land use areas, and conditions have been placed on specific operations to require filtering, as-needed, but we don't have broadly-usable sample code at the moment.
Wow, it is a huge issue here. Little children are waking up choking and trying at night, those with breathing issues are struggling and the airtight houses with air exchangers really suffer as well.
Has any testing been done on the air quality of the MJ grower exhaust air that you can point me to, Bae? Health impact? Any ideas or suggestions really welcome!
FWIW, the rules from the federal gov't for growing medical MJ are quite stringent and well thought out so the current thinking is to request bylaw/s aligning with those regarding air filtration alone for personal use production. The issue is the assignment of personal growing rights to greenhouses. Privacy laws prevent anyone from finding out if the assignments match the actual quantity grown. The odour is the issue.
We have legalized it in Washington State, an d there is an issue with odor.
Local jurisdictions have pretty wide powers to regulate land use here, and my county tried to impose a moratorium on greenhouse permitting for this purpose until we'd had a chance to craft proper regulations. That attempt failed for lack of votes on the council, and so it's still pretty wild-and-wooly. Conditional use permits are required in some land use areas, and conditions have been placed on specific operations to require filtering, as-needed, but we don't have broadly-usable sample code at the moment.
We have our first hearings on the new proposals after the first of the year, I’ll put up links to the material once I get them. It should make for an...interesting...discussion around here.
Most of our grow operations I know of are in industrial or rural areas where any odor is probably not an issue. I don't know if this is because of zoning or just the way it is.
Most of our grow operations I know of are in industrial or rural areas where any odor is probably not an issue. I don't know if this is because of zoning or just the way it is.
I say this gently, Roger, but people live move and breathe in the rural areas every bit as much as urban.
They depend and rely on one another and many homes are close together established years ago. When operations are suddenly changed, lives are changed, property values plunge, options for alternatives severely reduced and so much harder to overcome because of the limited numbers and urban thinking is that there is a lot of space so it shouldn't be a problem anyway. Friends are facing this both in the rural and in the urban settings. It is not 'the others' problem but a 'community' problem.
I say this gently, Roger, but people live move and breathe in the rural areas every bit as much as urban.
I understand. The intention was that the odor would dissipate before it affected residences due to the distance of separation. Our local paper publishes a lot of marijuana related issues and even has a cannabis editor with a section devoted to them. It's not big on my radar to track everything, but I've not seen many complaints about odor from grow operations nor have I heard of any health issues, and I've not heard any complaints from personal accounts. I'm hardly the expert. The retail sales outlets might be a different issue. Those are in more dense residential areas and I've noticed an odor drifts out of the buildings and might be noticeable one or a couple of houses away.
It could be worse.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/20/north-carolina-hog-industry-pig-farms
The problem of odor never occurred to me. Interesting.
I can’t imagine that marijuana odor would be any worse than the order from a hog farm or a dairy farm or a number of other historically legitimate farming activities. I grew up around these smells… “the smell of money” is what we called it.
I can’t imagine that marijuana odor would be any worse than the order from a hog farm or a dairy farm or a number of other historically legitimate farming activities. I grew up around these smells… “the smell of money” is what we called it.
Yes, that's what we called the smell of woodpulp in Georgia.
On the other hand, we both suffer from asthma, so I would be worried about those children waking up coughing.
That cannot be good at all. I would be very concerned about these operations if they were having this effect on children--that is terrible.
iris lilies
9-21-17, 9:36am
The problem of odor never occurred to me. Interesting.
Agreed, never knew this was an issue.
I don't see a smoke issue, but I do smell it! There are a few places, one industrial and another I can smell from the highway. They are in areas that already have a smell, the dog food factory and the industrial odors. As far as I know we have limits on where grow houses and dispensaries are located, and I haven't heard of issues in Denver. I have a friend who runs the business side of an edibles business and she hasn't reported issues.
It is waking people up and little toddlers are choking and crying in the middle of night, migraines, stress levels going crazy. The air is exhausted at non-consistent times but when it is, it is potent. There is seemingly no filtration done at all. Because it has no monitoring or regulations to comply with, no one knows what is used in spraying the crops either.
Has anyone complained to the local health department or environmental agencies, or are there community meetings where it can be reviewed?
Down here in Colorado Springs, we smell it frequently. I have grown to hate the smell.
Because there are no regulations/laws/bylaws/policies governing growing for personal use, those affected have to prove and document that it is a genuine problem. I have advised one party that they should work so that the issue is seen as strictly a health issue which then falls under the health and environment departments monitoring. We will see what happens. More and more greenhouses are converting or springing up as the perception is that there is $$$$$$ money to be made.
Has anyone complained to the local health department or environmental agencies, or are there community meetings where it can be reviewed?
I don't know if you have limits on the number of plants a person can grow for personal use. Here people can only have a few plants. There have been many arrests for people grossly exceeding the limit in a basement or garage to sell on the black market to avoid government taxes and regulations or to export to a state where it is illegal. I've read of several busts that were discovered by reports from neighbor of the odor coming from the home. I think they have also used utility consumption to pinpoint illegal grows. The expression "hiding in plain sight" has been used. If Jeff Sessions were looking for ammunition to enforce federal drug regulations, this is probably among his justification arsenal. Perhaps something to look into.
I have no idea of any air contamination regulations for commercial operations here. Maybe they have filters or maybe not but they definitely produce an odor. There is a list of approved pesticides and chemicals that can be used and I can only assume that there would be a similar requirement anywhere to have some degree of human health protection and that industrial emissions of any sort would be regulated. If it is just a foul odor it could be a difficult issue.
Where I live, it is virtually invisible other than the retail outlets. There are trendy downtown areas where people have complained about open use along the odor and other issues. Police seem to be cracking down on some of these areas, but I don't think they will ever be able to control it completely.
Anyway, a few problems and solutions that I've seen here. I have older friends who use pot responsibly either for recreation or perceived medical benefits. I am glad they have that freedom There is also a lot of misuse, just like alcohol, but there is a new subset of people trying to function at work or among family with impaired judgement. It's a new frontier. Maybe it will improve and work out or maybe not.
Roger, in Canada, one can grow 4 plants with no restrictions at all on growing conditions. However, you can legally assign that legal personal use freedom to a greenhouse to grow it for you.
Theoretically, greenhouses should be having a list of assigners asking the greenhouse to do their growing for them. Under privacy legislation, no one can require those greenhouses to produce a list of assigners - there may be only one or hundreds - therefore, the number of plants grown cannot be controlled or monitored by any agency of any kind. It is a legal loophole that is being exploited.
The federal government legislation by omission of any restrictions on personal use growing enabled this loophole and municipalities are now being asked to deal with it and they are struggling/floundering as they have no idea what to do. Residents are suffering.
It is waking people up and little toddlers are choking and crying in the middle of night, migraines, stress levels going crazy. The air is exhausted at non-consistent times but when it is, it is potent. There is seemingly no filtration done at all. Because it has no monitoring or regulations to comply with, no one knows what is used in spraying the crops either.
That is terrible, and you are so right to be concerned and try to take some action! Is there a Canadian equivalent of the CDC you could contact? Health and safety?
Roger, in Canada, one can grow 4 plants with no restrictions at all on growing conditions. However, you can legally assign that legal personal use freedom to a greenhouse to grow it for you.
Theoretically, greenhouses should be having a list of assigners asking the greenhouse to do their growing for them. Under privacy legislation, no one can require those greenhouses to produce a list of assigners - there may be only one or hundreds - therefore, the number of plants grown cannot be controlled or monitored by any agency of any kind. It is a legal loophole that is being exploited.
The federal government legislation by omission of any restrictions on personal use growing enabled this loophole and municipalities are now being asked to deal with it and they are struggling/floundering as they have no idea what to do. Residents are suffering.
I had to look a few things up. Not long ago we had something similar for personal use. They were called growing co-ops or cooperatives. Early this year this was made illegal. It presented problems in distinguishing co-ops from black market operations. I can see where it was a problem.
Exactly! How was that action taken, by whom, under whose legal direction and what criteria; and what lobbying, by whom, using what documentation, where was it obtained, etc? It would really hlelp to know. Mostly enough to control the odour. Links to sources of info for those who are dealing with the issue directly are so needed. They are struggling with despair as no one seems to have a sense of how to handle this.
I had to look a few things up. Not long ago we had something similar for personal use. They were called growing co-ops or cooperatives. Early this year this was made illegal. It presented problems in distinguishing co-ops from black market operations. I can see where it was a problem.
This was the article I referenced. I don't think there was any big lobby effort. I could be off, but I think it was mostly our governor who pushed the legislation. All the states with legal marijuana are currently under scrutiny by the attorney general who may choose to enforce federal regulations where pot is still a class 1 illegal drug. This was one aspect that was obviously out of control and a possible threat to maintaining it's status as being acceptable.
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/04/10/colorado-pot-co-ops/
Thanks for the link. Turns out that things are gradually getting closer scrutiny. Seems that the odour pervades the nearby dwellings, vehicles etc and is very difficult to remove. Imagine trying to sell a house in which no one had ever smoked but smelled like a pot house due to nearby grow op fumes.
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