California greenhouses growing pot like a weed, US agriculture secretary says
Is marijuana changing the U.S. agriculture landscape? In California, ganja is the new flower, according to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.
“We were in southern California where a lot of the cut flowers were grown and the greenhouses have been taken over by marijuana there,” he told FOX Business’ Dagen McDowell in response to a story about a San Francisco entrepreneur being forced to outsource her floral arrangements business because local farmers have begun to grow marijuana over flowers.
Roughly 69 million Americans now live in states where adults may legally consume recreational or medicinal marijuana. It’s now legal for recreational use in 10 states, including Washington, D.C., while 33 states and the nation's capital have approved it for medicinal use. In addition, 22 states and Washington, D.C. have passed laws decriminalizing small amounts of it.
However marijuana is still classified as a Schedule 1 drug, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency, which equates it with ecstasy, heroine and LSD.
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Perdue said that he doesn’t expect it to become legal at a federal level.
“Our farmers are so productive, I’m not sure it’d be a boon. We already see it stacking up in Oregon where it’s already legal within the state, but I don’t anticipate a legalization federally of that and I don’t know that our farmers really want that or need that. Our farmers are looking for a good crop where they can do right and feed everyone,” he said.