THE DRUG SQUAD is on a definite high.
The police unit is seizing record levels of home-grown weed as a reduction in imported marijuana has prompted a resurgence of local cultivators of the illegal drug in Barbados.
In the last four years, the Royal Barbados Police Force, through joint initiatives including its Tactical Response Unit (TRU) and the Barbados Defence Force, has removed more than 122 000 marijuana plants, some as high as eight feet, mainly in rural Barbados.
With each mature plant having the ability to earn a grower 17.5 ounces (a pound is 16 oz) of weed valued at $3 000 per pound, it means the Drug Squad has kept a whopping $366 million in local “chronic” off the streets in the last four years.
Watson bemoaned that large tracts of uncultivated lands in Barbados, which instead of being used for agriculture, were attracting those interested in growing drugs.
Hereferred to Bath Land, Venture, Palmers, Welch, and Cottage Land in St John; along with Vaughan’s Land, and Blackmans in St Joseph; Drax Hall, Todds and Lower Estate in St George, and the St Michael communities of Waterford Bottom, Codrington Hill, Storey Gap and Green Hill as favourite areas for weed growers.
“In the last five years, we found cultivation in those areas where terrain is difficult for those on foot and with dense vegetation had increased significantly,” the Drugs Squad chief told the Sunday Sun, while noting weed harvesting in the St Michael areas was much lower than in the countryside.
Please read the full story in today’s Sunday Sun, or in the eNATION edition.
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