News (Media Awareness Project) - US FL: Drug War Moves Cultivation Inside |
| Title: | US FL: Drug War Moves Cultivation Inside |
| Published On: | 2009-06-17 |
| Source: | Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL) |
| Fetched On: | 2009-06-17 16:29:44 |
DRUG WAR MOVES CULTIVATION INSIDE
Self-sufficiency, pride, the economy and a perceived responsibility
to stem international terrorism all are reasons why a growing number
of people are cultivating their own marijuana, according to lobbyists
who want to change pot laws.
"The more government has pushed on 'outside' growers (both out of
country and out of doors), the more this has moved indoors," said
Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "Through government programs meant to
eradicate marijuana, local production has grown."
And local law enforcement agrees on one point -- more times than not,
the grow houses busted belong to individuals and not drug cartels.
"Most are isolated, stand-alone cases," Volusia County sheriff's
spokesman Gary Davidson said after the latest operation in which two
grow houses were raided on the west side of the county and three
others taken down on the east side of the county. Agents seized 1,085
plants total.
Two recent raids involved highly engineered enterprises with hundreds
of plants each.
One in DeLeon Springs had caverns dug below a backyard storage shed
and a 65-foot crawlspace tunnel leading to it from the house. The
other, west of DeLand, was a compound fortified with an 8-foot-tall
concrete wall to help hide a 22-foot-tall, two-story storage shed of
at least 5,000 square feet.
Two of the men arrested recently in the grow house busts are
middle-age with minimal criminal backgrounds.
This jibes with what St. Pierre says of the "average" grower.
"Of the user patterns in the United States, the vast amount who grow
take themselves out of the black market," St. Pierre said.
[redacted] wasn't arrested last week -- though charges are pending --
when investigators raided his property and seized seven plants and 75
grams of cultivated marijuana, but he may well be one who grows for
his own use.
[redacted] wouldn't talk to a reporter who visited his property, and
his wife said she was "shocked" by the find and didn't know anything
about the pot. She told a different story to investigators.
While [redacted] wasn't growing anything inside his home,
investigators "followed a trail" from the plants that were about 25
feet from the rear of the property to the house. While being
interviewed, his wife, [redacted], told investigators the plants
belonged to her husband and gave agents permission to search the
house, where the processed marijuana was found, Davidson said.
St. Pierre said it's only because of a "bizarre incentive" given to
Florida law enforcement that grow houses have become targets. The
grow houses themselves are possible because of information and
technology, thanks largely to the Internet.
"We're clearly as biased as the day is long," he said. "More often
than not, police react to crime, but in the past few years law
enforcement has chosen to concentrate on it."
In 2008, Florida voted the Marijuana Grow House Eradication Act into
law, which makes it a second-degree felony to grow 25 or more plants.
The previous threshold was 300 plants.
Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson said St. Pierre's statement is
"all a smokescreen."
He denied St. Pierre's assertion that there is an incentive for law
enforcement to go after grow houses. He said the area is fortunate
because the resources are available to make drug busts of all varieties.
"We work them all. If it's against the law, we make arrests," Johnson
said, talking not just about his office but the Volusia Bureau of
Investigation, a law enforcement cooperative pulled together in 2003.
"We've just had a rash of grow houses. Not long ago it was meth labs,
but we were helped when (pseudoephedrine) had to be sold behind the counter."
Johnson said it's not worth the resources to target the individual
user who "gets caught for public stupidity," but it makes sense to
"go upstream" to get to the base of the problem.
Jon Gettman, a senior fellow at George Mason University School of
Public Policy who studies the numbers compiled by the Domestic
Cannabis Eradication Suppression Program, doesn't believe law
enforcement is getting to the base of the problem.
In 2004, about 28,000 plants were seized in Florida from 242 outdoor
grow operations and 246 indoor operations. In 2008, those numbers
jumped to 94,700 plants seized from 299 outdoor operations and 1,022
indoor operations.
"I don't think it's a matter that they were getting 10 percent and
now they're getting 40 percent, because the price has not changed
drastically in the last five years," he said. "People are producing
more, so even though police are seizing more they haven't cut into
(what is demanded) enough to cause the price to go up. There are
tip-of-the-iceberg moments when police were shocked to find grow
houses, and then shocked to find them in the suburbs," Gettman said.
More than 800 plants were seized outside of DeLand last week at the
walled-in compound of [redacted]. The estimated street value of his
plants, when mature, is nearly $4.3 million.
"In a bad economy, people are looking to make money," Johnson said.
"([redacted]) was in the construction business. I can't say that's
what he's doing."
Court records show [redacted].
[redacted], out of jail on $25,000 bail, had nothing to say to a
reporter at his home two days after his arrest.
"What is it you would like me to say? What would make you most
happy?" he asked. "I have no comment. I can't talk about this."
The income potential is difficult to ignore.
"One plant with buds may bring $3,000 to $5,000 at best," St. Pierre
said. "But when a quality female plant is properly germinated, it can
bring $5,000 to $7,000 for the seeds. It costs $10 to $40 for 10 proven seeds."
While seeds are illegal in the United States, there are hundreds of
Web sites selling them, and the people behind them will ship here
despite claims they won't, St. Pierre said. That coupled with the
ability to buy some basic equipment at any hardware store and manuals
about growing at any local bookstore (including Barnes & Noble in
Daytona Beach), make it relatively easy.
Some "proven" domestic varieties are Strawberry Cough, Train Wreck
and New York Diesel, St. Pierre said.
"All you need is one cutting or clone and in 38 to 45 days you have
something," he said. "People take pride in (growing their own)."
Nineteen grow houses have been raided in four months, some of which
are still under investigation. The anomaly -- a ring of 13 grow
houses connected to one another as part of a larger operation out of
Miami-Dade County -- was taken down in mid-March.
"These guys want to go where they won't be found," statewide
prosecutor Bill Shepherd said. "During the housing boom, they could
buy with no money down and bought houses at the price points they
wanted to make money -- which includes Volusia County."
Where there is a lot of money to be made, there's crime, he said.
"There are a lot of armed home invasions that occur and we never find
out about. They break in to take all the marijuana," Shepherd said.
"We hear about it when something goes awry and someone gets hurt."
[sidebar]POT BUST COUNTY COMPARISON
2005
County; sites; plants
Volusia; 0; 0
Flagler; 3; 146
Orange; 3; 84
Osceola; 0; 0
Polk; 13; 986
Putnam; 0; 0
Seminole; 5; 304
St. Johns; N/A; N/A
Florida; 367; 43,727
2006
County; sites; plants
Volusia; 1; 16
Flagler; 1; 4
Orange; 3; 55
Osceola; 0; 0
Polk; 7; 768
Putnam; 3; 321
Seminole; 5; 342
St. Johns; 0; 0
Florida; 480; 36,172
2007
County; sites; plants
Volusia; 20; 1,594
Flagler; 5; 642
Orange; 4; 268
Osceola; 1; 8
Polk; 38; 4,213
Putnam; 2; 17
Seminole; 5; 1,067
St. Johns; 3; 182
Florida; 44; 74,698
2008
County; sites; plants
Volusia; 16; 1,240
Flagler; 0; 0
Orange; 10; 296
Osceola; 0; 0
Polk; 36; 2,259
Putnam; 3; 83
Seminole; 5; 494
St. Johns; 0; 0
Florida; 1,022; 78,489
SOURCE: High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program
Self-sufficiency, pride, the economy and a perceived responsibility
to stem international terrorism all are reasons why a growing number
of people are cultivating their own marijuana, according to lobbyists
who want to change pot laws.
"The more government has pushed on 'outside' growers (both out of
country and out of doors), the more this has moved indoors," said
Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "Through government programs meant to
eradicate marijuana, local production has grown."
And local law enforcement agrees on one point -- more times than not,
the grow houses busted belong to individuals and not drug cartels.
"Most are isolated, stand-alone cases," Volusia County sheriff's
spokesman Gary Davidson said after the latest operation in which two
grow houses were raided on the west side of the county and three
others taken down on the east side of the county. Agents seized 1,085
plants total.
Two recent raids involved highly engineered enterprises with hundreds
of plants each.
One in DeLeon Springs had caverns dug below a backyard storage shed
and a 65-foot crawlspace tunnel leading to it from the house. The
other, west of DeLand, was a compound fortified with an 8-foot-tall
concrete wall to help hide a 22-foot-tall, two-story storage shed of
at least 5,000 square feet.
Two of the men arrested recently in the grow house busts are
middle-age with minimal criminal backgrounds.
This jibes with what St. Pierre says of the "average" grower.
"Of the user patterns in the United States, the vast amount who grow
take themselves out of the black market," St. Pierre said.
[redacted] wasn't arrested last week -- though charges are pending --
when investigators raided his property and seized seven plants and 75
grams of cultivated marijuana, but he may well be one who grows for
his own use.
[redacted] wouldn't talk to a reporter who visited his property, and
his wife said she was "shocked" by the find and didn't know anything
about the pot. She told a different story to investigators.
While [redacted] wasn't growing anything inside his home,
investigators "followed a trail" from the plants that were about 25
feet from the rear of the property to the house. While being
interviewed, his wife, [redacted], told investigators the plants
belonged to her husband and gave agents permission to search the
house, where the processed marijuana was found, Davidson said.
St. Pierre said it's only because of a "bizarre incentive" given to
Florida law enforcement that grow houses have become targets. The
grow houses themselves are possible because of information and
technology, thanks largely to the Internet.
"We're clearly as biased as the day is long," he said. "More often
than not, police react to crime, but in the past few years law
enforcement has chosen to concentrate on it."
In 2008, Florida voted the Marijuana Grow House Eradication Act into
law, which makes it a second-degree felony to grow 25 or more plants.
The previous threshold was 300 plants.
Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson said St. Pierre's statement is
"all a smokescreen."
He denied St. Pierre's assertion that there is an incentive for law
enforcement to go after grow houses. He said the area is fortunate
because the resources are available to make drug busts of all varieties.
"We work them all. If it's against the law, we make arrests," Johnson
said, talking not just about his office but the Volusia Bureau of
Investigation, a law enforcement cooperative pulled together in 2003.
"We've just had a rash of grow houses. Not long ago it was meth labs,
but we were helped when (pseudoephedrine) had to be sold behind the counter."
Johnson said it's not worth the resources to target the individual
user who "gets caught for public stupidity," but it makes sense to
"go upstream" to get to the base of the problem.
Jon Gettman, a senior fellow at George Mason University School of
Public Policy who studies the numbers compiled by the Domestic
Cannabis Eradication Suppression Program, doesn't believe law
enforcement is getting to the base of the problem.
In 2004, about 28,000 plants were seized in Florida from 242 outdoor
grow operations and 246 indoor operations. In 2008, those numbers
jumped to 94,700 plants seized from 299 outdoor operations and 1,022
indoor operations.
"I don't think it's a matter that they were getting 10 percent and
now they're getting 40 percent, because the price has not changed
drastically in the last five years," he said. "People are producing
more, so even though police are seizing more they haven't cut into
(what is demanded) enough to cause the price to go up. There are
tip-of-the-iceberg moments when police were shocked to find grow
houses, and then shocked to find them in the suburbs," Gettman said.
More than 800 plants were seized outside of DeLand last week at the
walled-in compound of [redacted]. The estimated street value of his
plants, when mature, is nearly $4.3 million.
"In a bad economy, people are looking to make money," Johnson said.
"([redacted]) was in the construction business. I can't say that's
what he's doing."
Court records show [redacted].
[redacted], out of jail on $25,000 bail, had nothing to say to a
reporter at his home two days after his arrest.
"What is it you would like me to say? What would make you most
happy?" he asked. "I have no comment. I can't talk about this."
The income potential is difficult to ignore.
"One plant with buds may bring $3,000 to $5,000 at best," St. Pierre
said. "But when a quality female plant is properly germinated, it can
bring $5,000 to $7,000 for the seeds. It costs $10 to $40 for 10 proven seeds."
While seeds are illegal in the United States, there are hundreds of
Web sites selling them, and the people behind them will ship here
despite claims they won't, St. Pierre said. That coupled with the
ability to buy some basic equipment at any hardware store and manuals
about growing at any local bookstore (including Barnes & Noble in
Daytona Beach), make it relatively easy.
Some "proven" domestic varieties are Strawberry Cough, Train Wreck
and New York Diesel, St. Pierre said.
"All you need is one cutting or clone and in 38 to 45 days you have
something," he said. "People take pride in (growing their own)."
Nineteen grow houses have been raided in four months, some of which
are still under investigation. The anomaly -- a ring of 13 grow
houses connected to one another as part of a larger operation out of
Miami-Dade County -- was taken down in mid-March.
"These guys want to go where they won't be found," statewide
prosecutor Bill Shepherd said. "During the housing boom, they could
buy with no money down and bought houses at the price points they
wanted to make money -- which includes Volusia County."
Where there is a lot of money to be made, there's crime, he said.
"There are a lot of armed home invasions that occur and we never find
out about. They break in to take all the marijuana," Shepherd said.
"We hear about it when something goes awry and someone gets hurt."
[sidebar]POT BUST COUNTY COMPARISON
2005
County; sites; plants
Volusia; 0; 0
Flagler; 3; 146
Orange; 3; 84
Osceola; 0; 0
Polk; 13; 986
Putnam; 0; 0
Seminole; 5; 304
St. Johns; N/A; N/A
Florida; 367; 43,727
2006
County; sites; plants
Volusia; 1; 16
Flagler; 1; 4
Orange; 3; 55
Osceola; 0; 0
Polk; 7; 768
Putnam; 3; 321
Seminole; 5; 342
St. Johns; 0; 0
Florida; 480; 36,172
2007
County; sites; plants
Volusia; 20; 1,594
Flagler; 5; 642
Orange; 4; 268
Osceola; 1; 8
Polk; 38; 4,213
Putnam; 2; 17
Seminole; 5; 1,067
St. Johns; 3; 182
Florida; 44; 74,698
2008
County; sites; plants
Volusia; 16; 1,240
Flagler; 0; 0
Orange; 10; 296
Osceola; 0; 0
Polk; 36; 2,259
Putnam; 3; 83
Seminole; 5; 494
St. Johns; 0; 0
Florida; 1,022; 78,489
SOURCE: High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program
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