I love reading the British news. Such odd little differences between American and British English, like “legalization” vs. “legalisation”, what we call a “truck” they call a “lorry”, and what we call a “marijuana grow house” they call a “cannabis factory”.
Twenty-nine forces said they had uncovered more of the drug being grown, including Gwent which detected no factories in 2004 but 151 last year.
The largest force in the UK, London’s Metropolitan Police, reported an increase from 206 to 654, while West Midlands saw a rise from 174 to 672.
New guidance has been drawn up by the National Policing Improvement Agency to tackle the burgeoning problem of cannabis cultivation.
A national cannabis coordinator has also been appointed to share information and best practice between forces, a Home Office spokesman said.
via Number of cannabis factories found by police rises sharply – Telegraph.
See what I mean? What they call a “national cannabis coordinator” we call a “drug czar”.
Words are important. “Cannabis factory” conjures “industrial”, “dirty”, “high volume”, “manufacturing”, and “business”. A “marijuana grow house” isn’t as scary. It’s a house where marijuana grows. “Houses” belong in neighborhoods, even if the house is being misused. “Factories” don’t belong in neighborhoods and can only be used for business.
Reefer Madness is a universal language, it just has different dialects from country to country.
As a dual US/UK citizen, I might be able to help clarify the language used here. Although I haven’t lived in the US for many, many years, I spent my childhood there and remember one of the most important differences between England and America very well: we had a lot more money and a lot more room there. Space is at a premium in the UK and money is more difficult to make. This affects cannabis cultivation directly, because a lot fewer people in the UK, particularly those living in a family, would have the space needed for a grow room. From what I remember, have read in forums and seen in videos of people getting busted for cultivation (The one that springs to mind was a guy busted by a female cop, I think, in California. I think it was you, Russ, who posted it on the Stash Blog.) you can always find enough space at home to grow a few plants in the States. Some people can even find two spaces – one for vegetive growth and another for flowering. Disposable income in the US would make it much easier to buy things like lights, exhaust and venting systems, plumbing, etc; and pay for things like nutrients and electricity. Now, we’re not quite so poor in Europe that we can’t afford to let the television run for a few minutes when there’s no-one in the room, or wash our clothes in a washing machine, or use a dishwasher once a day, but generally speaking we need to be more careful about where our pennies go. Cultivating cannabis is a rich man’s luxury. Most people will buy a gram or two for themselves, or three or four with friends at weekends, or a quarter ounce around about pay day. That means someone has to supply it.
I’m sure there are plenty of commercial grow houses in the States and prohibition ensures a lot of people make a lot of money from it. I think, however, the venture is more likely to be for enjoyment and/or supplying friends and loved ones and/or just to cover costs than for capital gain in the US than it is in the UK. In the UK, with space at a premium (look at the population density statistics) maximum economic efficiency must be made of every square inch and centimetre. Houses are rented and gutted, making not simply ‘grow houses’ but more accurately ‘cannabis factories’. This is nothing like a hobby. Very often these enterprises are run by violent criminal gangs making use of illegal labour – often illegal immigrants, sometimes imported especially, sometimes asylum seekers awaiting status decisions, sometimes children. They work a bit like the illegal Mexican farm labourers in the national forests of the South-Western states. Like their Mexican counterparts, the labourers in the factories are paid peanuts and their bosses make fortunes. Most people who sleep where cannabis is grown in England sleep on the floor like dogs between exhaust vents and lighting stands, because no-one is going to let them make use of the space required to make a bed. It’s not a house or a home; it’s a commercial enterprise – a factory. So, you see, in the European context ‘cannabis factory’ is actually a more appropriate term than ‘grow house’.
While we’re on the subject of language there is another point I’d like to address. Why do you continue to use the word, ‘marijuana’? The word was introduced as a means of demonising cannabis, the story being that it was brought into the US by Mexican immigrants, hence the Mexican-sounding word, and spread among the black population (who then used it to seduce white girls). Using this word is tantamount to accepting the dogma and lies it was introduced to support. I was lucky in moving back to the UK when I was young enough for it to naturally drop out of my vocabulary. We never used to use that word here, although recently, due to the surge of interest in and reports about cannabis from the US, it’s even popped up in the British press. It needs to be squashed.
I suggest NORML change it’s name to NORCL and adopt the tagline, ‘Explaining why marijuana never really existed.’ Sacrificing the clever-clever, catchy-cutsey acronym for a more descriptive one would be a significant gesture. While it may have been appropriate to appeal to the masses with an amusing acronym forty years ago, more than two decades of scientific research stemming from the discovery of the endocannabinoid system in 1990 have made the issue rather more serious now. Yes, Russ, you’re right: language is important. Educating the population about cannabis, its prohibition and how language is used as a means of manipulation to justify prohibition is very important.
We all know it’s normal (read ‘NORML’) to have an endocannabinoid system now. All vertebrates do. We didn’t know that forty years ago. Some people, however, are having difficulty understanding that everyone should be allowed to stimulate their endocannabinoid system with phytocannabinoids, which occur naturally only in cannabis, as they see fit, because only the individual is capable of knowing how and why his endocannabinoid system needs the stimulation and support of phtyocannabinoids. Explaining that is what needs to be concentrated on now. That it’s NORML has long been scientifically proven. Get over it and get on with it!
Words and names.
I have been hearing the words *Marijuana Gardens* a lot of lately. Which is a vast improvement over grow ops or grow houses.
They were called *Marijuana Labs* not to many years ago. In Canada that is.
What? They didn’t use the word “skunk” once. Isn’t that why it was re-classified to B drug?
I think England will revert pot back to a “C” classification after that idot Brown is removed or leaves office. Harper in Canada is his twin idiot!