On July 20, a pink glow illuminated the sky above the Australian town of Mildura,
causing suspicion and wonder among the residents. The glow turned out to be caused by
leaking red-light LEDs in an undisclosed marijuana facility used to encourage plant growth.
Local residents had a variety of reactions, like Tammy Szumowski and her family, who
thought the world was ending. “I was just like ‘What the hell is that?’ It is very bizarre, this huge pink light in the sky,” she remembered. “I’m trying not to freak out because I’ve got my girls in the car,” she said.
Others, like Anne Webster, a lawmaker representing the area in the Australian
Parliament, wanted to find a reason for the event. “I was driving home and it was dark, and I
noticed a very unusual, quite large pink glow,” she recalled. “I thought that is very strange. My
first thought was there has to be a logical reason for this.”
When the facility’s security guard investigated the light’s source, he noticed that it drew
attention from Mildura, 150 miles northeast of Melbourne.
“He went out on the evening and noticed a glow and he noticed a few vehicles pulling up
to see where it was coming from,” Peter Crock, chief executive of Cann Group, the company
behind the facility, said in an interview for the Australian Broadcasting Corp. The company
specializes in cannabis research and production.
In 2016, Australia legalized the production, research, and manufacturing of medical
marijuana. According to the cannabis market research company Fresh Leaf Analytics and a
study in the journal Frontiers of Pharmacology, 70,000 Australians mainly use the drug for pain relief, relaxation, and better sleep, bringing in around $160 million.
When Australia first licensed Cann Group to do cannabis research, they received
receiving a $1.5 million grant from the Victoria state government. The group used part of the
money to build an initially undisclosed cannabis production and research facility, whose location was revealed after the incident.
During a typical day, the facility’s black curtains block out the light emitted from the
redlight LEDs. But on Wednesday, the curtains were open for a short period of time, causing a
pink glow to escape and reflect from the clouds.
Link to article: Australian medical marijuana farm’s LED lights turn night sky pink
causing suspicion and wonder among the residents. The glow turned out to be caused by
leaking red-light LEDs in an undisclosed marijuana facility used to encourage plant growth.
Local residents had a variety of reactions, like Tammy Szumowski and her family, who
thought the world was ending. “I was just like ‘What the hell is that?’ It is very bizarre, this huge pink light in the sky,” she remembered. “I’m trying not to freak out because I’ve got my girls in the car,” she said.
Others, like Anne Webster, a lawmaker representing the area in the Australian
Parliament, wanted to find a reason for the event. “I was driving home and it was dark, and I
noticed a very unusual, quite large pink glow,” she recalled. “I thought that is very strange. My
first thought was there has to be a logical reason for this.”
When the facility’s security guard investigated the light’s source, he noticed that it drew
attention from Mildura, 150 miles northeast of Melbourne.
“He went out on the evening and noticed a glow and he noticed a few vehicles pulling up
to see where it was coming from,” Peter Crock, chief executive of Cann Group, the company
behind the facility, said in an interview for the Australian Broadcasting Corp. The company
specializes in cannabis research and production.
In 2016, Australia legalized the production, research, and manufacturing of medical
marijuana. According to the cannabis market research company Fresh Leaf Analytics and a
study in the journal Frontiers of Pharmacology, 70,000 Australians mainly use the drug for pain relief, relaxation, and better sleep, bringing in around $160 million.
When Australia first licensed Cann Group to do cannabis research, they received
receiving a $1.5 million grant from the Victoria state government. The group used part of the
money to build an initially undisclosed cannabis production and research facility, whose location was revealed after the incident.
During a typical day, the facility’s black curtains block out the light emitted from the
redlight LEDs. But on Wednesday, the curtains were open for a short period of time, causing a
pink glow to escape and reflect from the clouds.
Link to article: Australian medical marijuana farm’s LED lights turn night sky pink
