UK: Police launch operation to close cannabis 'factories'

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John Steele, Crime Correspondent

The Telegraph

Monday 25 Sep 2006

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A nationwide crackdown on cannabis "factories" has been launched by
police alarmed by figures showing that the high-strength "skunk" variety
of the drug now accounts for 60 per cent of the UK market.

An operation involving 17 forces in England and Wales will run over the
next two weeks with the aim of closing hundreds of cannabis cultivation
units, ranging from vast warehouses on farms to terraced suburban houses
crammed with plants, and disrupting the crime gangs behind them.

Skunk contains far higher quantities of the chemical THC than herbal or
resin-based cannabis

The growth of skunk, which has overtaken more "traditional" herbal or
resin cannabis, has accelerated over the last six years.

Skunk is significantly more profitable, selling at up to £120 an ounce,
compared to up to £70 for herbal and up to £50 for resin.

British gangsters are heavily involved in "hydroponic" cultivation of
skunk - growing plants in secluded warehouses using liquid nutrients.
The largest warehouse raided by police contained 20,000 plants worth £8
million.

In recent years there has also been an explosion, particularly in
London, of small-scale factories in residential homes, in which many
hundreds of plants are grown under intense light powered by electricity
illegally and dangerously diverted from the mains supply. There have
been a number of fires. This area is dominated by Vietnamese gangsters
using illegal "trafficked" workers.

Police identified at least 700 cannabis factories in London alone last
year and there is clear evidence that the skunk trade is expanding
across the UK, leading to the operation coordinated by the Association
of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

Skunk contains far higher quantities of the chemical THC than herbal or
resin-based cannabis. In the mid-1990s only around 10 per cent of
cannabis in the UK was believed to be skunk.

But the percentage in the last 10 years has spiralled to 60 per cent of
the market, a calculation based on police seizures.

The growing consumption of skunk will fuel the debate over whether the
decision to downgrade cannabis from a Class B to a Class C narcotic in
2004 was appropriate for a new form of the drug which can be between
four and seven time stronger than traditional "dope" - and whether the
decision had contributed to the growth of skunk.

Concerns have been raised about the health effects of skunk -
particularly in those with some types of mental illness - and its
potential to become more of a "gateway" than herbal/resin cannabis to
harder drugs.

Gangsters are thought to consider cannabis dealing to be a "lower risk"
than dealing in hard drugs but police chiefs argue that cultivating and
trafficking cannabis can still attract sentences of up to 14 years.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

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