While most view growing marijuana in the context of illicit drug-trade problems and the effect this substance is having on our kids, there are few who see the real problems this is causing our environment.

Sure, there are few ecological issues in a backyard propagation - apart from the dreaded increase in phosphate fertilisers. But the problem escalates when we consider that the bulk of marijuana comes from illegal plantations grown in the most remote forests.

For five months of the year growers tend their 'secret gardens' carefully keeping their stash as hidden as possible counting the days until harvest.

Alex Breitler, from Recordnet asks this;

What will they leave behind? Irrigation tubes that snake for a mile or more over forested ridges. Pesticides that have drained into creeks and entered the food chain, sickening wildlife. Piles of trash and human waste in the most rugged and bucolic drainages.

Pro-marijuana lobbyists argue that if the drug were legalised then these problems would cease. And most likely they would. But, instead of raping our land they will instead ruin our children.

It's a diabolical problem that just continues to grow and spread its ever-reaching tentacles across our environment and the community.

In some ways, it's actually easier to treat rampant invasive weeds. At least, when you're dealing with these plants and they're associated problems it's far easier to contain the issues. Trying to deal with illegal growers of marijuana plants in our pristine forest areas is like putting out spot fires in a refinery with rising winds at your back.

For states such as California, which is quite similar to my own homeland of Western Australia, the problems seem insurmountable and the fight against these dope growers is becoming even harder. Not to mention that marijuana growers are waving a large carrot in front of a governor facing the likelihood of a $billion budget blowout.

At this point, even for us gardeners who might have misgivings about the drug, it seems common sense to legalise this and allow our forests to recuperate.

But in the end it comes down to the balancing scales of our communities versus the possible degradation of our natural vegetation. Could you make the call?