Phila. Raids Show Trend:

POT GROWING COMES INSIDE

Hydroponic farming allows for plants with a stronger punch - and less
visibility to police.

When narcotics officers raided a brightly trimmed rowhouse in
University City early yesterday, they were looking for a suspect in a
marijuana ring. What they found surprised even them: hundreds of
shoulder-high pot plants growing under high-powered lights.

The raid was one of five around the city yesterday that scored about
700 marijuana plants, van-loads of growing equipment, and 130 pounds
of packaged marijuana.

The raids underscored what has become a concern among law enforcement
officials nationwide: marijuana growers are bringing their plants
indoors and out of sight of the law.

Tighter security at U.S. borders since Sept. 11, 2001, and an
increased assault on outdoor marijuana plants have combined to push
more production indoors, police and drug agents say.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration doesn't separately track
indoor marijuana seizures. But the agency says the number of pot
plants seized nationwide has risen each year since 2001, from 3.3
million in 2001 to 3.6 million in 2003.

The apparent increased popularity of indoor, or hydroponic, gardening
has caught on with marijuana growers.

Hydroponics is an intense method of indoor growing used by legitimate
businesses to produce high-yield, year-round vegetables. The gardens
have to be maintained with a steady supply of liquid nutrients. Plants
typically grow bigger and faster than they would outdoors.

Modern hydroponic marijuana is more potent than field-grown pot,
brings a higher price, and can be easily grown in small spaces with
legal and readily available equipment.

Canadian drug dealers - initially based in British Columbia, but now
spread along the U.S. border - have perfected indoor growing methods
over the last several years, the DEA says.

The DEA reported that in 2000 a little more than a million kilos of
marijuana were confiscated at the Mexican border and 1,600 kilos were
seized coming in from Canada. Last year, 1.3 million kilos were seized
coming in from Mexico and 9,000 kilos from Canada.

In January, police in Ontario raided an operation hidden in a former
brewery and reported seizing 30,000 plants.

DEA spokesman Lawrence R. Payne said U.S. indoor growers tend to be
individual operators who do not have the organized structure of the
Canadians.

In the Victorian house trimmed in red, blue and yellow in the middle
of the 400 block of South 43d Street, Philadelphia police found 440
marijuana plants flourishing in beds of rich nutrients. The older,
taller plants were in a third-floor front room. A nursery for younger
plants was in the basement.

"We didn't expect to find a grow at this location," Lt. Kevin Bethel
said.

A second house on the block also was raided. Police said they
confiscated cash from there.

In a simultaneous raid on a warehouse in the 2800 block of C Street,
police found a complete growing, drying, packing and shipping
operation, Bethel said. There, they confiscated 261 plants.

"Sometimes you wonder if you have enough evidence," he said. "Here, we
have almost too much evidence."

Field-grown marijuana can sell for $800 to $1,200 a pound on the
illicit wholesale market, police said. But hydroponic pot can sell for
$3,000 to $4,000 a pound, Bethel said.

"They know it has a good buzz, and that's what they are looking for,"
Bethel said.

He estimated the worth of yesterday's seizures at $3.5 million.

DEA officials have said field-grown marijuana of the 1960s had a level
of THC - the chemical that gives pot its punch - of 2 to 3 percent,
compared with 10 to 25 percent for modern hydroponically grown pot.

A study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical
Association reported that although the percentage of users remained
constant in the decade between 1991-1992 and 2001-2002, there has been
a significant increase in users who abuse or are dependent on the
drug. The study found that the frequency and quality of use also
remained the same, "suggesting that the... increase in potency of
9-THC may have contributed to the rising rates."

Indoor labs from Miami to Providence, R.I., to the California desert
have been shut down in the last several weeks.

In March, DEA and California police raided 25 houses near San Diego,
seizing thousands of plants. The houses were using three times more
power than their neighbors.

The warehouse raided yesterday on C Street had an electric bill of
$9,000 a month, Philadelphia police said.

The DEA and state police raided an elaborate growing operation in
rural Adams County near Gettysburg in March and confiscated 800
marijuana plants in varying stages of growth.

"It was a very sophisticated operation," said Richard Ford, DEA agent
in charge of the Harrisburg office. He said the 200-by-40-foot
building was a large pole barn disguised to look like a very large
house.

Three weeks ago, Colwyn police in Delaware County responding to a
domestic fight said they found a marijuana garden being set up in a
duplex on Colwyn Avenue.

A second-floor bedroom was lined with plastic, and police said they
confiscated high-watt growing lamps, air-filtering and sprinkler
systems, power boosters, and the rest of the ingredients to make an
indoor garden.

"This was not a fly-by-night operation," Colwyn Sgt. Jim Hazelton
said. "The equipment used was very sophisticated and very expensive."

Five men and a woman were arrested in the Philadelphia raids. They
have been charged with conspiracy and possession of marijuana with
intent to sell. They are: [names and addresses deleted]