People In Washington Are Buying And Smoking So Many Pre-Rolled Joints That The Packaging They Come In Is Becoming A Litter Problem

SEATTLE — Washington state’s penchant for getting high is trashing the place. Plastic “doob tubes” and small Mylar bags used to package pot are moldering in gutters, bleaching out in landfills and bobbing in waterways. Concentrated nutrients and fertilizers left over from cannabis growing operations are being dumped in public sewers and making their way past wastewater treatment plants into Puget Sound. And millions of pounds of weed harvest waste that could be composted are instead getting trucked to landfills.

“We’re seeing a lot of marijuana packaging in our public spaces,” said Heather Trim, executive director of Zero Waste Washington, which organizes litter cleanups. “Cannabis packaging is adding to our load, which then gets washed into our lakes and Puget Sound.” It’s all an increasingly big challenge for the state, which collected $315 million in taxes on retail marijuana sales of $1.4 billion in fiscal 2017. But in some ways, the problems start small.

Pre-rolled joints, for example, spiked in popularity by 67 percent in just one year, according to BDS Analytics, a cannabis industry data firm. They are sold for as little as $2 and come in small plastic containers. But doob tubes usually cannot be recycled, even when made of recyclable plastic, because their small size means that they fall through the grates of the recycling machines.

Well there’s an unexpected consequence of legalizing marijuana. People are smoking so many pre-rolled joints in Washington that the packaging it comes in is littering the streets, clogging drains and floating in waterways. Whoops! It’s not funny cause trash and littering is #bad for the environment but it’s also super funny cause it’s not the worst thing that could’ve happened. It’s not like there’s been an increase in violent crimes or driving deaths or murders. Turns out the biggest problem with legalizing weed is that people smoke so much of it that the packaging it comes in becomes a litter problem. That’s hilarious.

I gotta tell ya, a little litter on the ground seems like a worthwhile consequence for legalizing weed. Washington state is making money hand over fist after legalizing weed. All they gotta do it break off some of that extra money and hire trash picker uppers. Hire a group of trash picker uppers whose sole job is to pick up pre-rolled joint packaging. Then everything would go back to normal, right? I like to picture anti-weed legalization politicians chomping at the bit with this information. They’ll be like, “Yes, the devil’s lettuce is safer than alcohol, no one has ever overdosed on it and it brings in literally billions of dollars in revenue. BUT but there will be more trash in the streets! Do you want to live like pigs?! I didn’t think so. Weed is the devil.” Case closed.