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POLICE are shutting down growing numbers of drugs dens in Stoke-on-Trent – thanks to the pungent smell of a new super-strength strain of cannabis.
Latest figures show Staffordshire Police raided 141 drug factories last year – up from 127 in 2012 and 126 in 2011.
And officers believe more drug-growing operations are being busted because residents are picking up the weed’s strong scent before shopping their neighbours.
PC Mark Quick, the force’s drugs liaison officer, said: “The smell now is obvious to most people and it is a lot stronger than it used to be. We will sometimes get even old ladies telling us where their neighbours are growing cannabis on their estates.”
“The THC level, which is what gets users high, has gone up from six per cent 10 years ago, to 26 per cent.”
Officers believe there has also been a trend for cannabis operations to be set up in residential estates rather than rural areas as cash-strapped people look to make easy money.
The figures dwarf the numbers of growers caught elsewhere in the county, with just 16 arrested in Newcastle last year, 15 in Stafford, seven in Leek, while three cannabis farms were discovered in Stone, and one each in Uttoxeter and Cheadle.
Mr Quick added: “Ten years ago cannabis farms were usually in rural locations where the smell would not obviously be detected. Now, it tends to be more often around built up areas, where it is so obvious. We get intelligence through a variety of sources, like Crimestoppers, or people will tell us where they think cannabis is being grown.
“The equipment needed to grow cannabis can cost up to £25,000. Sometimes it can be very sophisticated.
“A lot of the time it will be one person, or a group of people who have banded together to grow it for their own use.”
Police believe the nature of housing stock around Stoke-on-Trent, with its abundance of terraced houses and close-knit communities, has lead to higher detection rates.
PC Tony Baddeley, of Burslem and Tunstall LPT, said: “Sometimes we have larger scale operations. Organised crime gangs will have people, often from Asia, growing plants for them.
“Those gardeners are not making any money themselves, they are just farmers. They will be brought over and will be kept for 12 months growing the plants and then released. It is people smuggling.”
Steven Pritchard, chairman of Portland and Cobridge Residents’ Association, said: “The housing stock is probably part of it. They do need to be stopped. But from a personal point of view, I think the Government needs to look at the drug laws in general.”
A spokesman at Nantwich-based Reaseheath College said: “This particular variety of cannabis is ‘skunk’, which is popular because it gives a better yield and has got more active ingredients, particularly under sunshine or heat lights. It has a particularly strong smell.
“It is raised from cuttings rather than seeds and it is more potent.
“There are over 100 varieties of cannabis. The more sophisticated the cannabis farms get, the more light and heat is used and the stronger the plants get.
“It is the variety and the way it is raised that would make it stronger.”
Police sniff out 141 cannabis farms in Stoke-on-Trent - thanks to pungent smell of super-strength ...
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