UK Cannabis factories double since 2004
Pastor Dale Morgan
UK Cannabis factories double since 2004*
By Ben Leapman, Home Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:43AM BST 04/05/2008
Cannabis factories producing large volumes of the drug are being
discovered at a rate of 50 a week, police figures show.
The scale of the crime has doubled since the law on cannabis was relaxed
in 2004, when the drug was downgraded to class C.
The findings come as the Government prepares to execute an about-turn,
with Gordon Brown expected to announce this week that cannabis will be
restored to class B against the advice of the Advisory Committee on the
Misuse of Drugs.
Since 2004, most people caught with cannabis have been let off with
warnings rather than facing arrest. Police say they will continue to
take a lenient approach even if the law is tightened once more.
Last year, about 5,000 properties were raided by police who discovered
cannabis plants being grown, up from 2,500 in 2005, according to figures
released by police forces under the Freedom of Information Act.
About half of the finds were factory-scale, defined as 10 or more plants
in one property. The rest were small-scale growing for personal use.
Typically, a criminal gang will take over a rented home and convert it
into an intensive production unit with compost strewn on floors and
ventilation holes ripped in ceilings.
Bright strip lighting is fitted, sometimes powered through dangerous and
illegal wiring which bypasses the electricity meter. Windows are
permanently covered for privacy, and fake walls may be fitted.
Some operations have been linked to established British crime gangs
while others have been masterminded by migrant gangs, often Vietnamese.
Herbal cannabis grown in Britain has overtaken imported Moroccan resin
and now accounts for 85 per cent of the cannabis seized from users,
according to private Home Office research presented to the Advisory
Committee.
The trend – which is backed up by today's new figures – has alarmed
mental health campaigners because much of the British-grown output is
"skunk", which is more than twice as potent as traditional strains of
cannabis.
Figures from 38 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales showed that
the number of premises found to be producing cannabis rose from 1,719 in
2005 to 4,126 last year, a rise of 140 per cent. If Britain's biggest
force, the Metropolitan Police, had provided figures, the total would
have exceeded 5,000, compared with about 2,500 three years ago.
Figures from 10 forces that were able to separate factories from
smaller-scale production show that factories account for about half of
all raids, and that discoveries of factories rose by 151 per cent over
the two-year period.
David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "This is yet another
serious consequence of the Government's ridiculous decision to
declassify cannabis.