A mysterious pink glow lit the sky over the Australian city of Mildura on Wednesday (20/7), leaving residents wondering if they witnessed an alien invasion, the misplaced northern lights or some kind of solar flare.
Quoted from the Washington Post, local resident Tammy Szumowski and his family thought the world might end soon. They thought the pink sky they were seeing was a sign of the apocalypse.
"I said 'What is this?', this pink light looks very strange in the sky. I tried not to panic because I brought my wife and kids with me in the car," he said.
"I was on my way home and it was getting dark, then I saw a very unusual pink light, quite large. I thought it was very strange. My first thought, there must be a logical reason behind this event," said Anne Webster, member parliament representing the area in the Australian Parliament.
In fact, that pink glow was emanating from a medical marijuana facility on the outskirts of Mildura. The pink glow in the sky accidentally revealed the previously secret location of this facility.
At the time of the incident, the facility was testing LED lights so that they bounced off the overcast night sky and created supernatural sights that both terrified and entertained the city of 56,000 residents.
As the facility's security guard investigated the source of the pink light, he realized that its appearance was attracting attention in the vicinity of Mildura, which is about 340 miles northwest of Melbourne.
"He came out at night and saw a light, and he saw some vehicles stopping to see where they were coming from," said Peter Crock, chief executive of Cann Group, the cannabis research and production company behind the facility.
They usually use light-absorbing curtains to hide the red-spectrum LED lights that are used to promote the growth of the cannabis plant.
But on the day of the incident, the curtains were left open for a while, sending a signal that was visible for miles around the facility located in the southeastern state of Victoria.
To note, in 2016, Australia legalized the cultivation, research and manufacture of medical marijuana. Today, some 70,000 Australians turn to medical marijuana for help, generating an estimated $160 million in revenue by 2021, according to Fresh Leaf Analytics, a cannabis market research firm.
According to a 2022 study published in the journal Frontiers of Pharmacology, Australians use medical marijuana primarily to treat pain, anxiety and sleep problems.
In the last two years, prescription drugs using marijuana have soared. A study said it was related to the mental health burden due to the implementation of various restrictions (lockdown) due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation.
Australia is the country that imposes some of the strictest restrictions in the world before it can vaccinate 95% of its adult population.
Meanwhile, the facility in Mildura, built on the site of a former juice factory, harvested its first batch earlier this month. Mildura is known as a major wine producer, supplying wineries throughout the region. But his venture into cannabis production was something new.