Met Police finds 1,000 cannabis farms across London

22 comments
  1. > We know there’s a link between drugs and violent crime

    Yes, because we made it *illegal*, so, er, criminals will obviously get involved.

    (also, cannabis != all drugs, but sure, conflate the two)

  2. They manage to find cannabis farms with a bit of effort but didn’t find any evidence of Christmas parties at Number 10 when they were stood outside, okaaaay then.

  3. It’s a fucking plant, try using your time to catch all these thief’s that your just dismissing as ‘not enough evidence’ and allowing them to continue breaking into people’s homes

  4. Think of all the man hours that went into this that could have gone into doing something that would actually protect the public.

  5. There is definitely an environmental case to be made for legalisation as well, just how much energy is being used in these thousands of farms, let alone the hundreds of thousands of ‘personal use’ growers. With modern strains I’m sure most of could be grown outdoors these days.

  6. Oh no, not cannabis farms! If only there was some way they could pretty much stamp out illegal cannabis growing while also making so much tax money they don’t know what to do with it.

  7. Just imagine how much tax revenue we’d get if this was legal but taxed and regulated like alcohol. Not to mention freeing up police resources to do something useful, and getting the criminal element out of the supply chain.

  8. Did plod solve any REAL crimes? The rest of the world have already legalized weed yet plod is eating manpower on this. Solve some Real crimes for a change.

  9. Over 6 years.

    And they found most of those last year when there was less policing to do.

    Saying that, if they were finding grows with enslaved Vietnamese kids I am fine with that.

  10. Farms… That kinda implies images like the headline image.

    I would be interested to see how many of those “farms” were commercial enterprises compared to someone with half a dozen plants in a cupboard.

    “Home grown” seems to have really taken off in the UK amongst regular older smokers so I would expect the ratio to home grown / commercial to be highly in favour of those who nave a couple of plants on the go and don’t necessarily supply anyone else.

  11. Plenty of people in here are claiming that the dismantling of these Cannabis farms is a waste of time, and it simply screams of ignorance as to the reality of these places.

    Regardless of your personal views on cannabis and legalisation of it, it can only be considered a good thing that these places are closed down.

    – These are not places that are operated by your mate Steve from down the pub, who’s a good bloke, just likes a little smoke and sells a bit on the side. They are operated by organised criminal gangs, the same people who go around stabbing and shooting one another of the street. The revenue generated by these farms just goes towards funding criminal enterprises, so by shutting them down, you are directly taking money from these people.

    – These places are not safe. 99/100, whoever has set it up has bypassed the electric meter, and has left exposed wiring dangling all over the place. These typically produces a lot of heat, and is a massive fire risk. Hell a good chunk of the Cannabis farms mentioned above are found when they catch fire.

    – The people that end up looking after these places are often victims themselves. They are trafficked into the country, have their passport and other documents taken, and get put in the house with instructions not to leave, and to look after the plants. They do so out of fear of what will happen if they don’t. I personally have found people tied up, naked and beaten in the woods after they tried to leave the Cannabis farm they had been placed in.

    – These farms attract other criminals. The vast majority of them are not found by police. They are found by other criminals, who have come by information that cannabis is being grown at an address, and then go to burgle it. When they carry out these burglaries, they come with knives, machetes, and sometimes firearms. It often ends badly for anyone inside, as well as any members of the public that try to prevent what they think is a regular house getting done over.

    As an estimate, of those 1000 or so, I’d say maybe 2-300 were directly found as a result of police work. The rest were likely found through fire, burglary, or some other organization such as the electric company or landlord. And whilst people may argue that police time is better used dealing with X or Y, it cannot be denied that the closure of these aces is a good thing, simply due to the danger they pose to the wider community.

  12. Go after real big criminals! Money laundering firms. Russian rotten oligarch mafia. This police is really shameful. Sack dick! Legalise canabis!

  13. Biggest problem is the victims of modern day slavery and human trafficking to end up being forced to work in the grows. Obviously, making cannabis legal won’t fix the problem of modern slavery as they’ll just be out to work else where but would help put a dent in it at least.

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