Cheshire Police are cracking down on cannabis growers in the borough after executing 28 warrants.
The crackdown is part of Operation Broadley, the regional cannabis campaign running throughout March.
Officers have seized hundreds of plants which could have generated more than £2 million to fund criminal activity on the streets in Cheshire.
Chief Insp Pete Shaw, in charge of the crackdown, said: “We want to cause as much disruption as possible to those organised crime gangs who see growing cannabis as an easy way to make money.
“The more farms we can take out of circulation, the more illegal drugs we take off the streets. Organised crime gangs often use violence and intimidation to force those most vulnerable in our society to set up cannabis farms.
“They put them at risk whilst they reap the profits, which then go towards funding serious and organised crime.
“We take the cultivation and supply of cannabis extremely seriously. Drugs and their associated activity cause misery to our communities. Operation Broadley′s success relies on information from ordinary people.”
Officers are working with housing associations, estate agents, rental companies, garden centres and DIY stores in South Cheshire to raise awareness of the checks needed to root out people setting up a cannabis farms.
“We are asking for the cooperation of individuals and businesses to help us to put a stop to illegal cannabis production in Cheshire,” said Chief Insp Shaw.
“There is a strong and distinctive smell to cannabis and farms often have a number of frequent and varied visitors to a property at unusual times.
“If you see any unusual activity such as a new neighbour taking large amounts of fertiliser and lots of plant pots into a property or see industrial type venting tubes, lights or fans being delivered to a property then call us.”
Call Cheshire Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
It is an easy way to make money because it is illegal – doh. All a crackdown is going to do is make matters worse with growers moving in from other areas, prices increasing, profits increasing – here we go round the mulberry bush – and of course an even more lucrative source of brownie points for the ‘crimes solved’ stats. It’s a very expensive form of lunacy – doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Meanwhile “Police statistics suggest more than 30,000 suspects have fled before attempts were made to secure convictions at a court. The figures, released under freedom of information laws, disclose that 14 per cent of “outstanding arrest warrants” related to offenders accused of violent crimes that included murder. A further three per cent were for suspects accused of sexual-related crimes such as rape while nearly a fifth were for suspected thieves. The statistics, issued after requests to 52 British police forces, show many warrants were issued for suspects who failed to attend court despite having been earlier arrested for the offence. Victims groups described the figures as “disturbing” and called for police to urgently “rectify this situation”.
That should say:
“The more farms we can take out of circulation, the more illegal drugs we take off the streets, the higher price we make and more profitable it gets.
Anyway it is getting just like in Soviet Union were people were forced to spy on neighbours.
Disgusting.
Why don’t we try taking a completely new approach to cannabis? Around three million people in Britain are regular users and whatever we do we’re not going to be able to stop them.
We waste billions every year on police, court and prison resources when a large proportion of society uses cannabis without any problem at all. In fact, the only real problem with cannabis is that it’s illegal.
The risks to health are very small – much, much less than alcohol or tobacco. By a recent analysis of mortality, hospital admissions, toxicity and propensity to psychosis, cannabis is nearly 3000 times safer than alcohol. Why not introduce a tax and regulate system and realise the benefits?
That way we’d have a properly regulated supply chain with no criminals involved, no theft of electricity, no human trafficking, no destruction of property and disruption of neighbourhoods. Then there would be some control over this huge market. There would be thousands of new jobs, sales would be from licensed outlets to adults only with guaranteed quality and safety. Then our police could start going after some real wrongdoing instead of trying to fight a crime that exists only because of a misguided government policy.
Also, very importantly, science now proves that cannabis is one of the safest and most effective medicines for a wide range of conditions. While the government promotes the lie that “there is no medicinal value in cannabis”, it has granted an unlawful monopoly to GW Pharmaceuticals to grow 20 tonnes a year for, you guessed it, medicine!
Cannabis Law Reform (CLEAR) published independent research on 14th September 2011 that shows a cannabis tax and regulate regime would provide a net gain to the UK exchequer of £6.7 billion per annum as well as reducing all health and social harms.
The only thing that keeps the present absurd status quo in place is weak politicians corrupted by Big Booze and the GW Pharma monopoly.
Go to the CLEAR website for full details: http://www.clear-uk.org