ADELAIDE, THE AMSTERDAM OF THE SOUTH

Mark's secret garden is a finely tuned operation. He has a hydroponic
cannabis plant ready for harvest every six weeks and at any one time he has
a cutting taking root, another in the growing phase and one in full bud.

"I think I grow as well as anybody," he says with pride. "I can produce as
much per plant as anyone I know. The last one produced nine ounces of dried
head, which is heaps."

Over two decades Mark and his friends have built up a store of knowledge
about plant grafting, fertilisation, collar rot, drainage, ventilation and
plant sexing. As any smoker knows, male cannabis plants are not worth the
pots they grow in; only the females produce the intoxicant THC.

Mark will not say how he can tell a male from a female but he can do it at
the eighth or ninth branch stage, about two months into its growth. But
plant sexing is not as critical as it once was. Those who grow
hydroponically - and most in South Australia do - use selected female
clones, or cuttings, to guarantee a result.

Mark's business, which services his needs and those of a few friends, has
been tailored to SA law which a year ago cut the 10-plant limit for
personal use back to three.

Over the years the quality of marijuana had improved so much, partly
because of the shift to hydroponic growing, that 10 plants had become
excessive.

"Once the three-plant limit was mooted, I geared myself to grow three,"
Mark says. "You keep the thing rotating, I've got it pretty well under
control by now."

The culture of marijuana growing that Mark represents is entrenched in
Adelaide. Its famously relaxed lifestyle is for some nothing more than an
easy mix of good climate, accessible housing, cheap wine and killer dope.

In such circles the results of the annual Amsterdam Cup - an international
competition for the best strain of cannabis - are something of a highlight,
with Internet orders going out to seed catalogues. When a strain like
Northern Lights or White Widow takes out the cup, growers can order up and
get their own Amsterdam quality crop under way in the shed.

In 1987 when SA became the first state to move to a cannabis expiation
notice system that decriminalised - but did not legalise - personal use,
Adelaide began to be looked on as a kind of Amsterdam of the south.

This claim to fame has just been promoted further by the decision of the
South Australian parliament to unexpectedly disallow the regulations for
three plants and raise it back to 10. Under SA law, anyone can grow up to
10 marijuana plants for themselves and their friends and risk a $157 fine -
but not a criminal conviction.

The opponents of this apparent generosity include the SA police, who
believe the return to 10 plants is "lunacy". They claim the government has
played into the hands of organised crime which runs large-scale export
operations based on small-time growers whose crops supply Melbourne and Sydney.

"If you are unemployed, a student or a sole parent, growing dope can reap
you up to $80,000 a year, tax-free," wrote Adelaide columnist Christopher
Pearson. "In some suburbs the gangs are major institutional landlords,
providing more reliable protection than the police."

Senior police, including Chief Superintendent Denis Edmonds, say the
cannabis market in SA is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars a week and
significant amounts of SA grown hydroponic cannabis go to New South Wales
and Victoria.

Independent Victorian MP Russell Savage, from Mildura, says marijuana being
trafficked between Adelaide and Sydney is regularly intercepted in his
electorate. He believes a cottage industry has developed in SA that trades
marijuana for money or narcotics.

"It is commonly believed that plants grown in SA are supplying the drug
industry in interstate trade," Mr Savage says.

But the Australian Democrats leader, Mike Elliott, who led last month's
drive back to10, said the reduction to three had made things better for
organised crime, not worse. While organised crime can exploit the 10-plant
limit for commercial gain, its major sources were still the large field
crops which were serious operations, often guarded with guns.

When 10 plants became three, he says, small-time users were once again
forced to buy from criminal syndicates who deal not only in marijuana but
also LSD, cocaine, amphetamines, heroin and ecstasy.

"With three plants, organised crime almost certainly increased their market
share," Mr Elliott says. "And the police were not catching the Mr Bigs.
They seemed to be continuing their policy of almost harassing people with
small quantities."

James Dannenberg, a member of Hemp SA, agrees the 10-plant limit reduced
the power of organised syndicates - some of them linked to bikie gangs - by
flattening the supply pyramid.

"Now (with 10 plants) we have hundreds if not thousands of Mr and Mrs
Smalls, all producing cannabis for themselves and their friends, and we
don't deny, selling some surplus," he says. "It reduced the power of the
big guys by spreading distribution all around the place."

Mark also knows "a couple of people" who became involved with syndicates
who provided the hydroponic equipment and took the first two crops as
payment. Now, he says, the couple sells some to the syndicate, some to
their friends and smoke the rest.

"As far as I know the syndicates aren't a big deal," says Mark. "You'll
find that just about one in every three houses in Adelaide has some growing
and the small growers supply their mates so they don't have to go to the
big syndicates. It's just a very low-key operation in SA."

It also explains why Adelaide marijuana, in national terms, is cheap. In SA
marijuana sells for around $200 an ounce (the industry has never organised
itself to go metric) compared with $400 to $500 for an ounce in Melbourne
or Sydney. It is the syndicates that grow for export who keep the price up,
Mark says, while small business traders sell to cover costs.

The shift to hydroponics has in the past five years revolutionised
marijuana growing because of its two fundamental advantages; it is easier
to conceal and quicker to grow.

Backyard or farmland marijuana crops have become increasingly vulnerable
not just to police but to other criminals who steal for their own use, or
for sale.

"After I got ripped off a few times I went indoors," says Mark. "The last
time three guys in a ute came charging out with axes - whack, whack whack,
into the back. I wasn't there but a mate of mine was and he was too scared
to put his head outdoors. He just let them go and I don't blame him."

This "rip off" syndrome is so widespread the SA Police Commissioner, Mal
Hyde, says most victims of home invasion in SA are involved in the illlicit
drug industry.

"The offence is often committed on those involved in cultivating or
trafficking illicit drugs or where the victims and offenders are known to
each other," Mr Hyde said.

Hydroponic growing has also revolutionised cannabis cropping because lights
are used to simulate seasonal change.

"The shift to three plants actually encouraged people to grow indoors,"
says James Dannenberg. "You can grow three plants outdoors once a year, or
three plants indoors four times a year. You choose."

Drug producers in SA last year stole around $2 million of electricity to
grow hydroponically.

Small operators like Mark, who has a full-time job, use what they make to
defray power and other costs.

No one would argue that cannabis growing in SA is not widespread. Police
say SA is a net supplier and potent hydroponic marijuana from the state has
been found in other states. An Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence
report earlier this year confirmed substantial amounts of cannabis were
going interstate.

But the same report added that reducing the personal-use limit to three
plants would have little effect. The return to 10 was not deliberate policy
and is unlikely to last. A compromise is likely to be found later this year
with a move back to somewhere around four or five.

In the meantime, this climate of liberalisation does not seem to have sent
a new wave of growers rushing to their hydroponics store - whose numbers
anyway appear to be shrinking. While there were more than 70 listed earlier
this year, there are now 22, only slightly more than in Melbourne which has
12 and Sydney with 17.

James Dannenberg - who believes until marijuana is made legal criminals by
definition will be involved - says it is wrong to assume Adelaide is
growing it alone.

"I know a guy in Sydney who runs one of the town's biggest bong and hydro
shops and has done for years," he says. "They may not all advertise in the
yellow pages but the notion that we are doing hydro and other states aren't
is clearly a nonsense."