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Lothar121

Police Launch Operation to Close Cannabis 'Factories'
John Steele | Telegraph.co.uk | 09/25/2006

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.

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.

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reggie_the_dog

Its a damn good thing that 60% or more of the cannabis sold is skunk. Hash is usually really cut up by the time it gets to the UK, I mean really cut up, it makes the slightly cut up stuff we have here in France look great, and if you have been to Spain you know what real hash should be like. Skunk weed is also easy to roll into joints without tobacco, unlike hash. There is a big "smoke pure" campaign in the UK now trying to convince people not to mix tobacco with cannabis to smoke and skunk is helping this.

Cannabis factory smacktory, I know a shitload of people in France and the UK that grow their own and give the extra to their friends.


420247365

I can't wait for the market to turn here in France. Up north in places like Lille, Strasbourg and Brest, the market is mostly cannabis flowers already, in Paris it is harder and harder to get hash and easier and easier to get weed, some "dank" from the UK, some homegrown, and brick weed coming up from Africa.

Hell even in Marsaille there is a cité (housing project/estate (uk) complex where they sell only weed and not hash (sorry I don't know the name, just what it looks like).

reggie_the_dog

"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."


excuse me but pure hash is about 35% thc, the cut up shit in the UK is 10 to 20%, skunk is 10 to 20%, homegrown outdoor is 5 to 10%

but the market was dominated by cut up hash at 10 to 20% thc plus used tyres, wax, parfine, shit etc.

at least skunk is 10 to 20% thc plus plant material.

and yes, UK skunk bought on the black market (in London get out of the tube at the camdentown station and walk north on camden high street, the vendors call out "skunk, marijuana, skunk" and you get an eighth of top quality for about 15 quid (sterling pounds), but you get a 5 gram bag for 20 pounds on the street in camden town, and the weed IS BETTER THAN ALMOST ANYTHING YOU CAN BUY IN THE TORUIST TRAP COFFEESHOPS IN AMSTERDAM AND CHEAPER, granted if you know the good coffeeshops in Amsterdam you get better quality and price, but if I told y'all they would turn touristy and then not be so good anymore, hint, walk 30 minutes away from the train station in any direction except the north)

jediborg

Wait, i'm confused, WTF is "herbal" weed? are they refering to the kind grown in the ground, reffered to in america as "shwag"?

And who cares if there's more THC, weed is weed, it's just a matter of how stoned you get.

Oh yeah, THC is not a narcotic. stupid media doesn't know the difference

king cola

I agree, that confuses me too, herbal weed and resin-based cannabis? Resin based must be hash, but herbal weed, weed is weed, theres just different genetics. I call any pot herbal, but maybe they do mean shwag or mids.

The stronger the pot, the less smoke goes into your lungs to get the stoned effect you need. If i can take 3 or 4 hits off a joint and consider the high to be good enough for me, it's better than having to smoke a full joint of lower quality bud to get the same effect.

Liquid nutrients, still should be known as plant nutrients, not just for marijuana. Gangs wouldn't be in control of pot if it was legalized and regulated.

If pot were legalized no one would be stealing the towns electricity. Illegal trafficked workers sounds like another problem, better make it another 17 forces to take care of that too!

The message is clear, prohibition isn't working. 700 grow operations is a big difference compared to a few grow houses. It's supply and demand, theres always people wanting pot, otherwise all these people would be sitting on thousands of pounds of harvested bud with no one to take it.

What about when doctors are unaware of someones mental illness because they were never diagnosed and then they are given a certain prescription drug? People with mental illness can purcahse alcohol but that's no longer public fear because alcohols legal. Harry Anslinger was using the gateway propaganda and that was back in the 1940s or 50's! The high you get from pot can never be the same as the effects people get from cocaine or heroin. It makes no sense that because someone smokes strong pot they are going to be out looking for coke, people get into it probably because they are with their friends and decide to try it, some people are experimental like that. Another reason is that the pot dealer might have harder drugs to offer.

Then how the hell do they figure skunk weed is a potentional gateway to hard drugs if these gangs are focused on dealing marijuana? You would think that there would be a lot of hard drugs busts going on, but in this article we see that their crackdown is on marijuana.

 

dredpiratrobert

Yeah WTF on these guys?? I've seen purple kush, and afghani types that had well over 10% (and probably over 12%) and were totally organic-- flushed early and dried/cured over 10-14 days... you cant say that's NOT herbal... so what rock were these bobbys hiding under for the last decade and a half?

sheesh!

herb is herb. SOme of it is quite effective while others is mediocre at best... who could blame consumers for asking after the highest quality??

it is a good idea to limit gangland activities in the homeland and so keeping the verious mafias in check might not be a bad idea...
However, If the authorities eradicate the domestic skunk-ops (especially smaller non-affiliated gardens) the gap in market supply will create a demand for product that can only be filled by bringing in large quantities over the borders which may be of questionable origin, quality, and price. And on the topic of prices, how can anyone be certain that the non-taxed pounds/euros exiting the country via cartel members will not fund terrorist actions against the jolly islanders or their favourite neighbors in the future?

Oh bugger!

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