[News Hawk]

A police crackdown on cannabis farms has left dealers struggling to keep up with demand.

Some dealers are even offering cash to regular customers who agree to grow drugs in their spare room.

Drug education charity DrugScope said the campaign by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) - which lasted less than a fortnight - led to the street price of dope doubling in some areas.

The group said dealers were finding it difficult to keep up with demand after hundreds of farms were raided by police across England and Wales.

Its Druglink magazine reported: "The raids have forced some dealers to offer regular customers cash for the use of a spare room for a three month growing cycle."

In recent years, home-grown cannabis had come to make up 60% of the country's supply, outstripping imports of the drug.

Therefore, the Acpo campaign has had a devastating impact on the illegal trade, the magazine went on.

Fifteen police forces took part in "Operation Keymer" from September 25 to October 5, seizing 28,000 cannabis plants and 54 kilos of prepared cannabis with a potential value of more than £2.5 million.

Acpo cannabis spokesman Allan Gibson, a commander at the Metropolitan Police, said: "The objective of Operation Keymer was to reduce the harm caused by criminal networks in producing high-potency cannabis.

"We have focused on closing down high-profit cannabis factories, arresting the organised criminals behind them and freezing the criminal assets that would otherwise have been ploughed back into crime."


Newshawk: Spliff Twister - 420 Girls
Source: Guardian News
Pubdate: 17 December 2006
Copyright: 2006 Guardian News and Media Limited
Contact: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/