Stoned Rabbits - There have been many - awkwardly skewed as well as some reasonable - arguments against the legalization of marijuana usage and cultivation in the country, but perhaps one of them that you haven't heard is that animals could get addicted to the plant.
Matt Fairbanks, a Utah DEA agent, has warned a Senate panel that passing a bill that legalizing medical marijuana would have negative effects on efforts to control drug abuse, and could potentially cause an environmental imbalance.
In his testimony before the panel, Fairbanks started off by pointing out that the use of marijuana among children between the ages of 12 and 17 in states that have legalized medical marijuana has actually increased. He goes on to cite several medical associations that have warned against the legalization of marijuana before speaking on its effects on the environment.
"Now I deal in facts. I deal in science," he explains before warning that the bill doesn't talk about enforcing drug laws and curbing the activities of illegal cultivators.
Fairbanks, who is a member of the Utah marijuana eradication team, then goes on to relay some of his experiences in stifling the "back-country farming" of marijuana.
"Personally, I have seen entire mountain sides subjected to pesticides, harmful chemicals, deforestation and erosion. The ramification to the flora, the animal life, the contaminated water are still unknown," he said."The deforestation has left marijuana growth with even rabbits that had cultivated a taste for the marijuana where one of them refused to leave us and we took all the marijuana around him but his natural instinct to run was somehow gone."
Fairbanks comment has since gone viral since it was reported by The Washington Post. Medics have warned that marijuana could cause health complications for smaller animals.
But his warnings were apparently not strong enough to scare the Utah Senate panel, who have approved the bill and forwarded it to the Senate house for debate and approval.
