Growth of cannabis - Time to have an informed debate

There has been an explosion in cannabis cultivation in this country.

Last year 26,531 plants were seized in 579 premises.

These finds were often in remote areas, which should be particularly alarming because there have been so many discoveries, stretching from Skibbereen in the South-West of the country to Collon, Co Louth, in the North-East. How much is growing undetected?

Marijuana or cannabis had been described as the biggest cash crop in the United States, reportedly worth as much as $18bn (€13.6bn) in 2006. Nobody should therefore be surprised that it is so prevalent here.

It is easy to buy cannabis seeds on the internet and plants can be grown to maturity in dark, isolated places such as attics under artificial lights in as little as six weeks.

Last year the Garda Síochána launched Operation Nitrogen, with raids on 60 premises where cannabis was being grown. Plants worth an estimated €6m were detected. Gardaí have seized cannabis plants in Co Cork in areas such as Kinsale, Ballinspittle, Timoleague, and Kilbrittain. There have been finds in the Cork City areas of Fair Hill and Mayfield, where gardaí found over €250,000 worth of cannabis in January. That operation was a follow-up on the seizure of €600,000 worth of cannabis in Glanmire and Carrigtwohill a month earlier.

A premises in East Cork was raided last week and gardaí seized over 2,000 plants. The plants were worth an estimated €800,000. Last month gardaí seized plants worth €500,000 in an industrial unit in the heart of the country, in Mullingar, Co Westmeath.

Herbal cannabis grown under sophisticated, artificial lighting in grow houses around the country is more potent and more likely to cause psychosis than cannabis grown under natural conditions, according to the Forensic Science Laboratory. Such cannabis has higher levels of the psychoactive component tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and less of the substance CBD, which is believed to protect the brain from the psychotic affects of THC.

Cannabis can be grown easily in such conditions with a high return in terms of value. This has frightening implications for the criminalisation of society, as was demonstrated during the prohibition era from 1919 to 1933 in the US. The ban on the sale of alcohol failed spectacularly in the US. Alcohol actually gained increasing social acceptance during prohibition. The legislation not only bred disrespect for the law but also cultivated the growth of organised crime.

There is no doubt that alcohol is a dangerous drug. The evidence of its dangers can be seen in the lives that have been wrecked and the families that have been destroyed by the abuse of alcohol.

Of course, some will immediately question any comparison between cannabis and alcohol.

Many will argue the comparison is totally wrong, but they will frequently do so for totally conflicting reasons.

We should have an informed, constructive debate about the relative dangers of drugs such as alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis.