Scratch and Spliff: Skunk farm crackdown sees cards smelling of cannabis posted through letterboxes

Crimefighting charity Crimestoppers has funded the initiative

"Scratch and sniff" cards laced with the smell of cannabis are to be posted through thousands of doors on Merseyside as part of a major crackdown on illegal skunk farms.

It is hoped the cards will help people unfamiliar with the odour of cultivated cannabis - as opposed to cannabis smoke - to identify drug farms in their communities.

The initiative is the latest in an ongoing police bid to tackle the drugs scourge which last year saw 400 farms busted and 38,500 cannabis plants - capable of flooding the county's streets with at least £38m of home-grown dope - seized.

A boom in production on Merseyside has seen organised mobs set up drug factories across the county, often in unsuspecting residential areas.

Police hope the cards, provided by crime-fighting charity Crimestoppers, will help people spot the signs of cannabis cultivation and lead to more tip-offs.

Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Richardson, who heads up the force's cannabis dismantling team, said: "Cannabis is not a harmless drug and its production is large in scale and large in profit here in Merseyside as well as elsewhere in the country.

"The quantities that it is being grown in here means it is rarely people doing it to feed their own casual habit - it is organised criminal gangs who are setting them up and controlling them.

"This is bringing associated problems such as violent crime and gun crime to the streets of our communities as these criminals seek to steal each other's crops and money.

"We are determined to put a stop to this and we are discovering so many cannabis farms now that we have a dedicated team whose job it is to dismantle every one we find and capture the evidence the criminals leave behind."

A demonstration was also due to be staged today at Merseyside fire service's Bootle headquarters to show the fire risk that cannabis farms pose to the public.

A specially-built area replicating a room in a house where a sophisticated cannabis farm has been set up will see a fire start as a result of the dangerous wiring used to bypass the electricity meter.

The room will quickly catch fire and, due to the house being unoccupied - as is often the case where cannabis farms operate - extensive damage will quickly occur.

Figures released by the fire service reveal that between 2011 and 2013, crews extinguished 73 blazes involving cannabis farms, including 46 in Liverpool.

Six people had to be rescued by fire crews.

Of the 73 fires, the ignition source for 19 of them was the dodgy electricity supply which had been abstracted from the National Grid.

DCS Richardson added: "Cannabis farms are a serious fire risk in that the electricity meters are almost always tampered with to steal electricity, hot lamps will have been rigged up to simulate ideal growing conditions, and a watering system will also be in place.

"Electricity and water are never a good combination and these criminals care little about the people their crude handiwork may harm. There have been dozens of times recently where the fire service have been called to a house fire only to discover a cannabis farm alight inside."

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk 26/06/2014