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Europe: Grow Ops Pop Up in Southern Norway

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #524)

Norwegian police have made a number of marijuana grow operation arrests this year, according to the Oslo newspaper Aftenposten. Gardens busted on Kråkerøy Island, near Fredrikstad, and Kongsberg in Buskerud over the weekend were just the latest indications that cannabis cultivation is taking off in the land of the Norse.

Those two raids were the fourth in a week, and the 14th and 15th in recent months in southern Norway. Other garden busts have occurred in Telemark, Buskerud, Hedmark, and Østfold counties. Many of the busts have involved Vietnamese growers, according to police.

Police believe many of the grow ops are linked, and the national crime unit, Kripos, has been called in to aid local investigators. "We've noticed that many of these cases bear similarities," said Kripos spokesman Atle Roll-Mathiesen. "We've gotten involved, to look at the links between them."

Scandinavian countries generally have tough drug policies, and Norway's drug laws are no exception. While small-time drug possession, including marijuana possession, is charged under a relatively lenient section of the Norwegian criminal code, drug cultivation or trafficking offenses, including those involving marijuana, are serious crimes punishable by up to 21 years in prison.

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

sicntired (not verified)

sicntired Just when you thought the Europeans had this shit together you read something like this.I just don't see how you can have the possession of something as a misdemeanor and the cultivation of the same thing as a major felony.It makes no sense to me but then I'm no genius.Sounds like these guys need something to relax them.Any suggestions?

Fri, 02/22/2008 - 1:15am Permalink
Anonymous (not verified)

That place is herion CENTRAL! Jesus. If you couldn't score there your - well - probably a journalist?
There isn't a place where you can score herion easier than Norway and their problem with same is huge. And these guys want to bust weed folk?
That Ladies and Gentlemen is your American tax dollars at work.

We do not need a war to drugs, a war on crime, a war on terrorism or a war on poverty.
We need a war on con-artist Bible thumpers and their goon squads - aka - Law Enforcement.

Sat, 02/23/2008 - 4:32pm Permalink
6packer (not verified)

0alo = donkeys!

21 years in prison for weed same like national hero from oslo - brevik who killed 90 people,.

Thu, 04/19/2012 - 8:18pm Permalink

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