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Polk Authorities Finding More Marijuana Grow Houses

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By BILLY TOWNSEND | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 19, 2007

LAKELAND - The numbers are striking.

Deputies and police in Polk County say they have raided and dismantled 34 marijuana "grow houses" in the county through the first 10 months of 2007.

In all of 2006, that number was three.

What's going on? Law enforcement officials say criminal organizations based largely in the Miami area are choosing Polk County as a site for what amounts to marijuana export manufacturing plants.

The houses are producing high-quality, high-cost marijuana with elevated levels of THC, the drug that gives marijuana users a high. And they are raising it for wholesale distribution. Little is ending up on Polk streets, where marijuana seized typically is of lower quality, said Lt. Steve Ward of the Polk sheriff's office.

"A lot of it seems to be headed for New York," Ward said.

It's a problem Polk didn't have as recently as a few years ago. And the money involved is large enough to finance sophisticated operations and spark violence.

A pair of grow houses, one in northeast Polk and another in the Lakeland area, were discovered in the wake of home invasions that left people injured. Both occurred in quiet neighborhoods not known for crime.

Orderly streets, with neighbors accustomed to minding their own business, suit the interest of grow operators, Ward said.

"They move in to some very nice neighborhoods," said Ward. "They'll buy or rent, and the first thing they'll do is throw up a privacy fence and renovate."

A Spreading Enterprise

In Polk County, if detectives charge a homeowner or renter with "maintaining a dwelling for drug use and sale," they count the home in question as a grow house.

Technically, says Ward, detectives likely could charge anyone growing marijuana plants for personal use at home with maintaining a drug dwelling. But in practice, that doesn't happen, he said. The houses detectives are finding are not owned and operated for personal use.

Rather, they are indoor farms that use extensive fertilizer, lighting and hydroponic growing equipment and techniques to grow and harvest hundreds of thousands of dollars in marijuana plants several times a year.

Ward traces the sudden influx into Polk County and other less urban areas across the state to increased law enforcement pressure on grow operations in the Miami area.

"The organizations there have been hit pretty hard, but they've been able to gain a foothold up here," Ward said.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration echoes that assessment, saying on its Web site that "numerous grow operations have been seized in South Florida and Southwest Florida" and that indoor cultivation has spread north.

"Marijuana cultivation has become a lucrative business in Florida, especially indoor grow operations," the DEA says. "These marijuana grows exist all over the state and are found in residential and rural areas in equal amounts."

To protect themselves, Ward says, the organizations running the marijuana operations have developed a cell-like structure meant to insulate members from investigators.

Ward says his detectives have found that the people who buy the homes generally don't know the people who set up the wiring for heat and light or the people who tend the plants.

"They don't know each other, so we have a hard time getting to the main people," Ward said.

It has also proved difficult to put away the people detectives do catch, Ward said, noting that they generally post bail and disappear. Detectives are trying to counter that by turning to the federal legal system, which has generally harsher marijuana statutes.

Casualty Of The Drug War?

Industrial grow houses add a new dimension to the longstanding debate over whether marijuana should be legal, like alcohol or cigarettes.

Opponents of criminalization have long complained that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol or cigarettes and that making it illegal creates unnecessary criminal activity.

Richard Cowan is the operator of Marijuananews.com and a board member with NORML, an organization that advocates for legalizing recreational marijuana use for adults.

Cowan calls indoor cultivation "an international issue," but argues that it's a logical result of criminalization. Tough enforcement of outdoor growing and "mom and pop" indoor operations has made the trade more lucrative for criminal organizations.

"Prohibition works the way it always does. It drives up the price," Cowan said. "The price has become high enough to justify the risk."

Numbers are difficult to verify, but the DEA site indicates that marijuana demand is thought to be flat or down slightly in recent years.

Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Oscar Negron disputes the idea that enforcement is driving up the price, crediting the quality of the crop with that.

Reporter Billy Townsend can be reached at (863) 284-1409 or wtownsend@tampatrib.com.

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