Regulated cannabis plants growing in Oakland, CA
New Jersey’s new Attorney General Paula Dow held a press conference yesterday lauding the largest marijuana bust of living cannabis plants in the state’s history. But authorities involved are well aware that the amount seized is just a small drop in a very large bucket.
Several people were arrested after the complex indoor marijuana growing operation was raided in Monroe Township. One house was apparently not hard to find. A local police officer smelled marijuana emanating from a chimney as the growers were burning some of the plant parts. After the ill-concealed clouds of pot smoke were discovered a full investigation was launched.
NBC News reports:
Along with a vast array of indoor cultivation equipment, 3,370 growing plants, 115 pounds of harvested marijuana and $65,000 cash was seized in the raids on five different large homes, which one law-enforcement official described as "mansions." READ FULL
In this type of marijuana grow operation no one lives in the property, it is used exclusively for cultivating cannabis.
Grow houses are being found in wealthier neighborhoods for several reasons:
- Large houses offer more space and distance between houses
- Wealthy suburbs deeply follow rules of personal privacy
- Large houses that would already consume more water and electricity attract less attention and do not require stealing utilities
- The housing market slump has made larger housing less expensive with fewer buyers
Still, the recent bust makes no visible dent in the underground marijuana market of the Garden State.
Over 30, 000 New Jersey residents are arrested every year for a marijuana violation, more than 80% are for possession of less than 50 grams.
There is an assumption nationally that actual pot arrests account for about 1% of overall users. That could mean that there are 2-3 million marijuana consumers in New Jersey.
The state has about 10 million permanent residents overall.
This week the California Board of Equalization (BOE) released a report that CA residents are consuming over 1 million pounds of marijuana every 365 days. The CA BOE also concluded that 22.3 million pounds of marijuana were grown in California in 2006 alone. Read the CA BOE report
While New Jersey’s marijuana market is likely not on the same scale of California, a safe hypothesis could assume that there are indeed several million pounds of marijuana grown in the Garden State each year to keep up with local demand.
Let’s do a little math experiment: To supply 2 million cannabis consumers with just ¼ ounce per month of mid-grade underground marijuana at a cost of $50 per quarter-ounce would make for a $1.2 billion dollar pot market just in New Jersey; every year.
This theory would also mean that NJ residents consume at least 375,000 pounds of cannabis annually.
These are just conservative estimates by a blogger with a calculator.
The reality is that there are thousands of grow houses in New Jersey and every other state. Most of them are not as easy to detect as a big whiff of pot smoke from the chimney.
The only answer to problem of the ‘grow house’ issue is full legalization and regulation of marijuana.
In California there is a ballot initiative (TAX Cannabis 2010) and also state legislation AB 390 introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano. Both seek to legalize marijuana for recreation use and then directly tax the sales.
In their report the BOE estimates that if Ammino’s bill were made law CA would take in $1.4 billion of revenue...at least.
No such cannabis regulation proposals have been made in New Jersey. Still, the financial benefits to any state following such an example are compelling.
Until marijuana prohibition ends, law enforcement agencies know that they can confiscate 3000 pot plants every month in New Jersey and it will still have no impact whatsoever on the underground cannabis market.
WATCH VIDEO: Anne Davis of NORML-NJ on FOX 9 yesterday
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Chris Goldstein may be contacted with questions: media@phillynorml.org
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Comments
Yeah, I hope they understand that's just the tip of the iceberg. Actually, I wish they realized it was the bottom of the bucket to stick with some cliché lines. No matter how many resources they consume, they will NOT stop this plant from growing. This bust just further proves that. The grow op's are going to keep getting more complex, and our states budgets are going to keep falling fast.
But you would never know from law enforcement. "Another MARIHUANA BUST! THE DEMON WEED IS OFF THE STREETS! ANOTHER GREAT SUCCESS OF THE DRUG WAR!"
It's only a matter of time before these outdated laws are removed. I don't know how many plants it's going to take, but God Damnit it will.
Thanks once again Chris for this excellent continued coverage.
That's what usually happens when the truth is presented."CENSORED"
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