Down On The Pharm

I am quite accustomed to granting search warrants to investigate the burgeoning home-grown cannabis industry, in which professional operators can cram hundreds of plants into a suburban semi. The biggest that I have seen was a 5000 square foot industrial unit that was betrayed by its consumption of water and electricity. We saw something on a smaller scale the other week, a bedroom adapted with hydroponic systems to produce fifteen or so plants. The discovery was made by chance, as police visited the owner on another matter and stumbled across the drugs. The laboratory report was interesting, as it analysed just three of the plants to give an average yield of ready-to-roll dope. The amateur horticulturalist claimed that he had found street cannabis a little expensive, so he decided to cut out the middle man and grow his own. He didn't save anything, as we forfeited the plants and the equipment and fined him a fair bit of money.