Nomination For Hero Badge

Marijuana Grow House

When I worked dope, I used to joke about finding the realtor that specialized in finding properties for dopers. TV cops never had problems establishing surveillance on crooks. In real life, it seemed like the crooks found the one residence on a block not suited to observation. According to the story, that realtor works in Chino.

https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/03/realtor-converts-california-homes-into-marijuana-farms-with-millions-from-china/#more-276515

The legalization of marijuana was supposed to put an end to the illicit marijuana trade. The reality is, illegally growing marijuana is alive and well. How can this be?

The regulatory scheme and licensing requirements and fees discourage compliance. Legal growers find 30 to 40% of their profits going to taxes and licensing. I don’t know if that percentage covers OSHA and building and zoning regulations.

Then there is the problem that legitimate marijuana growing and distribution is a cash business. No checking accounts or lines of credit. Try buying a property or securing a contract for services with a suitcase full of cash.

Here are photos of a marijuana grow that I took down. It was located in a three bedroom house. Notice the wiring job. Think that will pass inspection? The grow room had its own air conditioner. The lights, irrigation system and plants make for a hot humid environment. The plants obscure the black mold creeping up the walls.

The grower, at this site, owned the house. In rent houses wholly given over to “grows” it is a different story. Growers will kick holes in the walls and cut holes in the floor of multistory homes to run irrigation or supplemental electrical lines. Windows are boarded shut.

The growers steal electricity, either from the utility or their neighbors. This is done to disguise the high amount of electric use. Homes used for illicit marijuana grows are not fit for occupancy without extensive renovation. Here is a link to a home repair project after a marijuana grow was removed.

https://www.hgtv.com/shows/holmes-on-homes/episodes/repairing-extensive-damage-done-by-tenants2

To the uninitiated, it would seem that growing marijuana growing indoors is an anomaly. They would be wrong. Indoor grows are the preferred method. Outdoors a grower is limited in the number of crops produced. The growing cycle is three to four months. Inadvertent pollination can ruin an entire crop. Indoors, a savvy grower can cut the growing cycle to 40-45 days. The grower can control every factor: exposure to light, type of light, watering, nutrients, heat and humidity, and pollination (or lack thereof).

The final fallacy to the legal marijuana argument is a take off on the old which came first: the chicken or the egg? Are marijuana growers crooks because they grow marijuana or do crooks grow marijuana because they are crooks?

Dope is culture. In the marijuana community, the guy who came up with a workable indoor grow scheme is just as revered as Steve Jobs is in the computer community.

Crooks do what crooks do without regard to how straight folks view them. I have listened to wiretaps where the main crook complains because the police “stole” his marijuana shipment. I watched a crook just shake his head in disgust because he got arrested for selling me a kilo of cocaine. He felt that since I was part of the transaction, I should be arrested also. The fact that I was a cop made no difference to him.

Giving up 30-40% of profit for no appreciable benefit, that isn’t going to play in the crook world. The threat of incarceration isn’t a deterrent to growers. Where is the incentive to pay taxes?

Finally, there is a report in Lancet, (The British Journal of Medicine) that links heavy use of high grade marijuana to psychosis. This research first surfaced in the 90’s.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-03-high-potency-pot-strongly-linked.html

This probably isn’t worrying to liberals and democrats as psychosis is considered a social skill.