Jake Brenner, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences at Ithaca College, is available to discuss ecological questions and concerns stemming from the expansion of legal marijuana agriculture in the United States, which is expected to be worth $11 billion by 2019.

This November, voters in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada will decide whether to allow their states to legalize and tax recreational marijuana; while voters in Arkansas, Florida, Montana and North Dakota will head to the polls to determine whether their states will allow medicinal uses of marijuana, joining the 25 other states that already do so. Brenner co-authored a study that examined the potential environmental impacts of cannabis grow sites in northern California, which found that current practices could impact threatened fish species.

Brenner is available for interviews and can be reached at [email protected], or by contacting Dan Verderosa in the Ithaca College Office of Marketing Communications at [email protected] or 607-274-1440.