[Sativa]

The price of Dutch marijuana has increased 20 percent this year because the supply is being curbed by a rise in police raids on hemp plantations.

The effectiveness of one gram of Dutch-grown marijuana also has decreased by 1.5 percent, according to an e-mailed statement from the Trimbos Institute, a Dutch group that studies drug addiction and treatments. The level of THC, the compound that gives cannabis its potency, fell to 16 percent from 17.5 percent last year.

It is the first time that the price of Dutch marijuana has risen since the institute started keeping a record of hemp prices in 1999. One gram of marijuana, grown in the Netherlands, costs 7.30 euros ($10.30) currently.

A decrease in supply of Dutch hemp and higher prices could be causing some marijuana producers to mix the cannabis with compounds such as sand and glass pearls, the statement said. The Institute didn't find evidence that hemp sold in Dutch coffee shops has been mixed with other compounds.

Imported cannabis was 5.4 percent weaker than a year ago, according to the statement. The price of imported marijuana also increased this year, by about 40 cents per gram.

Earlier this year, police in Rotterdam said they'd shut down 600 indoor marijuana farms since 2005. There are about 6,000 active producers in the city.

Dutch officials have stepped up raids on an estimated 40,000 indoor hemp plantations, which cause two fires a month in Rotterdam by tapping into power lines for lights that feed their crops. The crackdown is making it harder to supply marijuana shops with the Super Skunk and Purple Haze their customers crave in a country that decriminalized use of the drug in 1976.



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Source: bloomberg.com
Author: Joana Quintanilha
Contact: quintanilha@bloomberg.net
Copyright: 2007 Bloomberg.com
Website: Bloomberg.com: Europe