ATTN: Zero

[RisiR]

German Pot Edges Out Moroccon and Afghan Supplies

Marijuana grown in Germany is increasingly edging out imports from countries that until now acted as suppliers, such as Morocco and Afghanistan. Where hippies of the past swore by "black Afghan," today's pot smokers are quite willing to roll German hashish and marijuana in their joints.

Hobby gardeners who grow a few plants in their basements or garden plots for their own use are not the main part of the problem. Authorities such as Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) see far more cause for concern in large-scale operations such as the one near Brandenburg, as well as in the business' "organized international structures." Many German marijuana growers have Dutch backers, while those who care for the crops and help with the harvest are often recruited from countries where wages are lower.

The boom in domestic cultivation also means a change in strategy for police. In the past, their main target was drug trafficking. But, increasingly, officials are on the hunt for local marijuana growers and their hidden plantations.

The number of large-scale growing operations discovered -- those with more than 1,000 plants -- increased last year from 18 to 26. Authorities also found 316 small and mid-sized sites with fewer than 1,000 plants. Investigators assume, though, that a considerable number of cases go unreported.

The current phenomenon began in the Netherlands, but the situation there quickly got dangerous for growers. Gang wars sprang up around harvests, distribution channels and markets, and in some cases people were even killed.

Going East

Although the Netherlands is world famous for its tolerant policies towards soft drugs and its pot- and hash-selling "coffee shops," the government in The Hague in recent years has cracked down on cannabis growers -- in effect pushing them out of the country, with many Dutch drug gangs setting up shop across the border in neighboring Germany. Those backing the projects evaded authorities by heading over the border, first to the German federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, all fairly close to the Netherlands.

But there, too, pressure increased, and more and more producers are now moving further east, toward Brandenburg, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, all states that were formerly part of East Germany. With its low population and countless barns and industrial buildings standing empty, eastern Germany appears to offer ideal conditions for marijuana growers and their flourishing greenhouses. This, at least, is how BKA's Marion Gradowski and Bernd Welsch describe it. The two officials maintain a map of Germany specifically indicating marijuana growers' locations.

According to Welsch, who is in charge of investigations relating to cannabis, this eastward expansion is changing the entire German market. Drug cultivators in the west of the country once harvested their crop and brought it back to be processed in the Netherlands, where the plants were dried and fermented. The finished product was then divided up and packed in small plastic bags to be sold, for example, in Dutch coffee shops.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/marijuana-made-in-germany-a-booming-business-in-illegal-cannabis-plantations-a-700108.html

I don't expect you to read all of this but, y'know, just for the sake of it.


Everything is better Made in Germany.

[starvingniglet]

It took several countries working together to put germany down.....twice

[Zero]

German Pot Edges Out Moroccon and Afghan Supplies

Marijuana grown in Germany is increasingly edging out imports from countries that until now acted as suppliers, such as Morocco and Afghanistan. Where hippies of the past swore by "black Afghan," today's pot smokers are quite willing to roll German hashish and marijuana in their joints.

Hobby gardeners who grow a few plants in their basements or garden plots for their own use are not the main part of the problem. Authorities such as Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) see far more cause for concern in large-scale operations such as the one near Brandenburg, as well as in the business' "organized international structures." Many German marijuana growers have Dutch backers, while those who care for the crops and help with the harvest are often recruited from countries where wages are lower.

The boom in domestic cultivation also means a change in strategy for police. In the past, their main target was drug trafficking. But, increasingly, officials are on the hunt for local marijuana growers and their hidden plantations.

The number of large-scale growing operations discovered -- those with more than 1,000 plants -- increased last year from 18 to 26. Authorities also found 316 small and mid-sized sites with fewer than 1,000 plants. Investigators assume, though, that a considerable number of cases go unreported.

The current phenomenon began in the Netherlands, but the situation there quickly got dangerous for growers. Gang wars sprang up around harvests, distribution channels and markets, and in some cases people were even killed.

Going East

Although the Netherlands is world famous for its tolerant policies towards soft drugs and its pot- and hash-selling "coffee shops," the government in The Hague in recent years has cracked down on cannabis growers -- in effect pushing them out of the country, with many Dutch drug gangs setting up shop across the border in neighboring Germany. Those backing the projects evaded authorities by heading over the border, first to the German federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, all fairly close to the Netherlands.

But there, too, pressure increased, and more and more producers are now moving further east, toward Brandenburg, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, all states that were formerly part of East Germany. With its low population and countless barns and industrial buildings standing empty, eastern Germany appears to offer ideal conditions for marijuana growers and their flourishing greenhouses. This, at least, is how BKA's Marion Gradowski and Bernd Welsch describe it. The two officials maintain a map of Germany specifically indicating marijuana growers' locations.

According to Welsch, who is in charge of investigations relating to cannabis, this eastward expansion is changing the entire German market. Drug cultivators in the west of the country once harvested their crop and brought it back to be processed in the Netherlands, where the plants were dried and fermented. The finished product was then divided up and packed in small plastic bags to be sold, for example, in Dutch coffee shops.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/marijuana-made-in-germany-a-booming-business-in-illegal-cannabis-plantations-a-700108.html

I don't expect you to read all of this but, y'know, just for the sake of it.


Everything is better Made in Germany.

I'm set to go Amsterdam very soon but might fuck it off. I've always wanted to go Germany so care to show me around?

[Michael Myers]

German Pot Edges Out Moroccon and Afghan Supplies

Marijuana grown in Germany is increasingly edging out imports from countries that until now acted as suppliers, such as Morocco and Afghanistan. Where hippies of the past swore by "black Afghan," today's pot smokers are quite willing to roll German hashish and marijuana in their joints.

Hobby gardeners who grow a few plants in their basements or garden plots for their own use are not the main part of the problem. Authorities such as Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) see far more cause for concern in large-scale operations such as the one near Brandenburg, as well as in the business' "organized international structures." Many German marijuana growers have Dutch backers, while those who care for the crops and help with the harvest are often recruited from countries where wages are lower.

The boom in domestic cultivation also means a change in strategy for police. In the past, their main target was drug trafficking. But, increasingly, officials are on the hunt for local marijuana growers and their hidden plantations.

The number of large-scale growing operations discovered -- those with more than 1,000 plants -- increased last year from 18 to 26. Authorities also found 316 small and mid-sized sites with fewer than 1,000 plants. Investigators assume, though, that a considerable number of cases go unreported.

The current phenomenon began in the Netherlands, but the situation there quickly got dangerous for growers. Gang wars sprang up around harvests, distribution channels and markets, and in some cases people were even killed.

Going East

Although the Netherlands is world famous for its tolerant policies towards soft drugs and its pot- and hash-selling "coffee shops," the government in The Hague in recent years has cracked down on cannabis growers -- in effect pushing them out of the country, with many Dutch drug gangs setting up shop across the border in neighboring Germany. Those backing the projects evaded authorities by heading over the border, first to the German federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, all fairly close to the Netherlands.

But there, too, pressure increased, and more and more producers are now moving further east, toward Brandenburg, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, all states that were formerly part of East Germany. With its low population and countless barns and industrial buildings standing empty, eastern Germany appears to offer ideal conditions for marijuana growers and their flourishing greenhouses. This, at least, is how BKA's Marion Gradowski and Bernd Welsch describe it. The two officials maintain a map of Germany specifically indicating marijuana growers' locations.

According to Welsch, who is in charge of investigations relating to cannabis, this eastward expansion is changing the entire German market. Drug cultivators in the west of the country once harvested their crop and brought it back to be processed in the Netherlands, where the plants were dried and fermented. The finished product was then divided up and packed in small plastic bags to be sold, for example, in Dutch coffee shops.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/marijuana-made-in-germany-a-booming-business-in-illegal-cannabis-plantations-a-700108.html

I don't expect you to read all of this but, y'know, just for the sake of it.


Everything is better Made in Germany.

I'm set to go Amsterdam very soon but might fuck it off. I've always wanted to go Germany so care to show me around?

How dare you pass up an opportunity to make fun of me IRL, you infidel?

[RisiR]

I'm set to go Amsterdam very soon but might fuck it off. I've always wanted to go Germany so care to show me around?

I don't want to be rude but I'd rather not meet homosexuell men I've met online.

Amsterdam is alright. I was just being a wise ass. If you want to visit the shops in central Amsterdam you might hurry up because many of them will have to close down because they are located too close to schools.

If you don't care about Dutch culture and only want to go somewhere for weed I'd recommend you Barcelona. It's the "New Amsterdam" in a nicer location.

http://cannabisbarcelona.com/
http://www.weedinbarcelona.com/

Though, the weather is pretty bad right now.