[Sativa]

The Daytona Beach News-Journal takes a look at why marijuana growers are moving their operations inside. In fact, the newest trends make the words "home grown" take on a whole new meaning.

Before 2001, most marijuana was grown outdoors or smuggled from Mexico and the Caribbean.

Thanks in part to stricter border control since the Sept. 11 attacks and better detection by authorities, marijuana growing has been brought inside by high-tech horticulturists.

They use high heat, fertilized water, track lighting and plant genetics to propagate marijuana with dizzying levels of THC, the ingredient that makes users high.

The indoor crops can be worth millions of dollars. In Florida, only vegetables and oranges generate more money each year than pot's invisible harvest, according to a study done by Jon Gettman, a professor at Shepherd University in West Virginia.

Nationwide, from 2001 to 2006, seizures of indoor plants increased 71 percent, federal agents reported.

For investigators, finding indoor nurseries gets harder as home growers build extra interior walls to hide the smell -- like a sweet blast of freshly cut grass -- and to conceal the plants from view.


News Mod: CoZmO - 420Magazine.com
Source: Poynteronline (FL)
Author: Al Tompkins
Contact: tompkins@poynter.org
Copyright: 2007 The Poynter Institute
Website: Poynter Online: The Pot Farm Next Door