Photo Gallery Growing Dope Troubles
In recent years, cannabis plantations have become a serious problem in Germany. Here, police raid a cannabis crop in Fohrde, a town in the eastern German state of Brandenburg in March. Police warn that the high concentrations of THC in pot grown in indoor plantations can no longer "be considered simply a soft drug."
The troubles started in earnest after the government in neighboring Holland began cracking down on drug gangs and growers, who then moved their business into Germany.
Holland has long been known for its liberal drugs policies and its hash- and pot-dealing "coffee shops." But in recent years, the government has moved to eliminate cannabis cultivation in the country.
Many growers have shifted their operations to Germany, but many of the crops are also intended for domestic markets here. Police have increased their efforts to stamp out the illicit business, using helicopters ...
... and infrared cameras to hunt for indoor growing facilities. The energy use of growers can also be a tip off. Drug cultivators' high energy demand often makes them suspicious. Just 100 of the 600-watt sodium vapor lamps growers often use consume as much electricity in a day as an average family does in half a year.
After police secure the cannabis plants, they dry them out so that they can test the levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the powerful substance that gets people high. The crops are only destroyed once those levels are determined.
In recent years, courts have also taken the THC levels into account when doling out sentences to growers.
Continuous demand from several hundred thousand regular consumers of cannabis in Germany is drawing more and more amateurs and copycats into the business, which has seen a complete commercial infrastructure develop around it.
Beginners' grow-your-own sets can be bought online for as little as 29. All of it is legal, since the paraphernalia could, theoretically, just as easily be used to grow tomatoes. The Internet also provides everything from scads of growing tips to entire training courses on how to grow especially high-yielding and intoxicating plants from hemp plant seeds. The seeds, too, are easy to obtain online from foreign dealers.
