Pharming News

The Court of Appeal has laid down the going rate for sentencing the increasingly-prevalent crime of high-tech cannabis production in this country. Hundreds of these 'farms' are discovered each year, often because of the heat given off by the lamps used, or the pungent smell of mature plants. The ones that I have dealt with have varied from a school caretaker growing half a dozen plants in his shed (on school premises!) to full-on Vietnamese gang operations with 200 or so plants in one house. Usually the raid just captures a single peasant caretaker/gardener who is often an illegal immigrant, and has, of course, no idea who the organisers are. Sometimes the premises are full of cannabis. but otherwise deserted.
Commercial drug supply attracts enormous sentences these days, but that doesn't seem to have made a lot of difference on the street. A few years ago, the Big Two of heroin and cocaine traded, we were told for about £50,000 a kilo. Today the police and Customs estimate it at £40,000. If the price has dropped by 20% simple economics suggests that supply has increased or, much less likely, that demand has dropped.

(later) This is interesting. It shows how easy it is to get information on how to do it yourself. Video