In some ways, it is a success story. A home-grown product develops such a global reputation it is exported around the world despite fierce international competition.
Last week’s report by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) in the UK, noting that so much cannabis is produced in Britain that the drug is being distributed abroad, shocked most commentators.
However, the findings that Britain’s huge, secretive complex of cannabis “factories” — many in rented houses — are looking to export came as no surprise to those who monitor organized crime in the UK. They have known for some time that “growing your own” is no longer the preserve of hobbyists and hippies with access to a greenhouse.
Britain’s opportunist underworld has been quick to spot an emerging market in skunk, the most potent strain of cannabis. Profit margins are enticing. A factory can cost £20,000 (US$31,000) to establish, an outlay that can be recouped by an initial harvest within two months. In a year, a single factory can yield up to £500,000.
International policing operations have disrupted traditional smuggling routes from countries like Morocco, a historical supplier of cannabis resin to the UK. What’s more, the popularity of skunk over resin partly explains the sudden growth of cannabis factories. Strong skunk varieties carry a cachet, and a number of producers have focused their business strategy on increasing the strength of their plants.
Seeds are carefully cultivated to produce plants of steadily higher potency. For years, the Netherlands held the reputation for producing some of the strongest skunk around. Users claim that newer UK varieties have started to rival Dutch produce. Thousands of factories have sprung up in the past few years. Officers closed down nearly 7,000 in the last year. Growers have taken advantage of the recession by turning abandoned clubs and banks into factories.
The first step to large-scale production is creating the optimum climatic conditions to mimic the hot, humid temperatures that foster rapid cannabis growth. Properties are relatively simple to convert into plantations. Hydroponic equipment, easily bought over the Internet or legally from garden centers, creates the nutrient delivery and automatic irrigation systems required for rapid growth. The one pitfall for the large-scale cultivator is heat.
Hundreds of factories have been uncovered by the sustained temperatures needed to produce the crop. Neighbors have noticed that during heavy snowfalls, roofs have remained warm enough to melt the snow. In other cases, wallpaper has peeled off in adjoining terraced houses.
As recently as 2005, just 15 percent of Britain’s cannabis was home grown; by 2008, it was 90 percent, with the latest phase pointing to export. In factory terms, 800 were uncovered in 2006, spiraling to more than 6,800 from last year to this year.
So far, the biggest cannabis factory uncovered by police contained more than 7,600 plants with an estimated value of £2.5 million. History may shortly judge the Cambridgeshire factory’s production to have been modest.
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