CANNABIS NOW FOUR TIMES STRONGER

A secret police study involving scientists growing crops of cannabis
has revealed New Zealand now has super-strength strains of the drug.

In May last year, Sunday News revealed police and Environmental
Science and Research (ESR) used sophisticated hydroponic equipment to
complete three cannabis growing cycles, nursing six plants at a time,
18 in total, to maturity.

The findings of the study, to be published in Forensic Science
International, and released exclusively to Sunday News earlier this
week, revealed the drug is now more than four times stronger than it
was when ESR last tested it in 1996.

The THC level - the primary intoxicant - varied between 4.35% and
25.3% during the study completed under Ministry of Health licence
between 2004 and 2006.

When ESR last tested the Class C drug, they found an average THC level
of just 6%.

The THC levels varied considerably, as did yields, during the latest
study - due to the growers lack of cannabis-cultivation knowledge, the
ESR report read.

"The inexperience of the growers was evidenced by different problems
encountered in each of the three cycles, each of which would be
expected to negatively impact the yield and THC data obtained."

Cannabis potency is believed to have remained stagnant from 1976 to
1996. But police believe it has increased significantly in recent
years due to criminals using more sophisticated growing methods,
helped by the availability of specialised equipment, like that sold at
hydroponic specialist shops some of which police raided across the
country this week.

More than 250 people were arrested on more than 750 charges as part of
the two-year undercover operation which targeted shops such as
Switched on Gardener and large-scale cannabis-growing enterprises
allegedly linked to the business and other similar companies.

According to the cannabis study, the first six plants grown were
"purchased from an illegal grower" and were a variety known as Red
Devil. The second cycle used cuttings from the first, and the last
used plants from a police raid - meaning the cannabis grown throughout
the study was the same as that commonly purchased by users on the streets.

Scientists yielded more than 5kg of cannabis from the 18 plants. Sold
by the ounce, at the going rate of $350, the crop would have been
worth more than $60,000.

Scientists grew the drugs in a room "comparable to the average New
Zealand bedroom, which is a space commonly used to grow cannabis
indoors", the report reads.

"It's a serious drug. And it's very clear that long-term usage has
very long-term effects ... it's not the social drug of the 60s any
more ... it is a drug that causes serious harm," Detective Inspector
Stuart Mills said.

Mills, chief of the National Drug Intelligence Bureau, said the study
findings backed-up police fears the drug had become more potent.

"We've been aware through various techniques and our information that
THC level has been increasing, and this study confirms it."

Assistant commissioner Gavin Jones said police and ESR undertook the
study to determine the size of potential harvests and gauge THC levels
which had increased dramatically worldwide over recent years.

Police needed to know how strong our cannabis was so they could "start
benchmarking trends and patterns", and compare them to international
levels, he said.

"Internationally it's up around the 20% mark, so we're just not quite
sure what it is here," Jones told Sunday News in May last year.

The study said the cannabis information was needed to assist in the
court process, "when they are considering the severity of the
offending, and in particular how much income is being derived from
such an illegal operation".

A preliminary investigation into outdoor growing cannabis had shown
THC levels averaged almost 11%.