Scandinavia
Norway is the latest country to go public with regard to the cannabis epidemic its residential neighbourhoods are currently experiencing, as Norwegian police acknowledge the wholesale cannabis cultivation is most likely linked to Vietnamese organised crime.

"We've noticed that many of these cases bear similarities," Atle Roll-Mathiesen told Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. "We've gotten involved, to look at the links between them."

Norwegian Police found more cannabis greenhouse operations in otherwise ordinary Norwegian neighbourhoods over the weekend, and now they're following the scent of links among them all.

A raid on a house in Kongsberg resulted in the fourth seizure of what police are calling indoor "plantations" in just a week. Around 400 cannabis plants were found in the house, which was privately rented out. A Vietnamese man was arrested at the scene, and was to face charges on Monday.

The Kråkerøy and Kongsberg seizures were the 14th and 15th in recent months in southern Norway. Other cannabis greenhouse operations have been found in Telemark, Buskerud, Hedmark and Østfold counties, and several have involved Vietnamese tenders like at the house in Konsberg.

Police acknowledged over the weekend that they think the cannabis operations are linked, and the national crime unit Kripos has been called in to aid local investigations.

Nearly 60 persons, mostly of Vietnamese background, are now in custody in Norway after police raided yet another house south of Oslo Wednesday night and found a new cannabis plantation inside.

The modest house in rural Enebakk contained nearly 500 cannabis plants, all being cultivated under sophisticated watering, lighting and heating systems that ravaged the home's interior. In most cases, the houses are rendered uninhabitable. The plants are generally tended by Vietnamese gardeners, and police are actively trying to find out who is behind them.

The America's
In the United States and in Canada its been much the same story over the last 12 months as drug enforcement agencies struggle to get a grip on the marijuana growing explosion.

Affluent neighbourhoods in California and elsewhere have been targetted by organised Vietnamese crime gangs, who rent private domestic residences, kit them out as indoor growing operations and harvest literally millions of dollars worth of marijuana every year, and seemingly regardless of the amounts of money police spend on enforcement - currently around $42 Billion a year.

A DEA agent from California was quoted as saying "For every grow house we shut down, there are another 50 running to a successful conclusion and with this sort of payback for what is seen as a modest investment, I don't see an end to the cannabis boom anytime soon."

Which begs the question? Whats causing it?

If you listen to UK politicians they, along with the active anti-cannabis lobby, would have you believe the blame lies squarely at the feet of former Home Secretary David Blunkett and his decision to downgrade cannabis from a class B drug, to a class C. But after looking at similar circumstances from around the world that becomes a fantasy. A spin doctors explanation which assists with an agenda nothing to do with the true picture and even less to do with harm reduction and public health, and a lot to do with money.

But why would politics wish to demonise cannabis and its users with tales of ailments like mental health issues which include schizophrenia and brain damage, kidney damage, premature aging, teeth falling out, and a plethora of other woes?

We can speculate all we like but the fact is the recreational use of cannabis stands on a lot of corporate toes, not least of which is the alcohol industry.

In a report published in The Guardian recently, Vivienne Nathanson, the British Medical Association's head of ethics and science, criticised the UK government for its cosy relationship with the drinks industry, which she says, "had led to voluntary codes of practice which simply do not work."

"Recent governments have worked too closely with the alcohol industry and have pursued policies of deregulation and liberalisation regarding alcohol control,"

In a nutshell, the more liberal our policies on alcohol, such as longer opening hours, wider availability through more retail outlets, and marketing campaigns aimed at the younger generation, the more alcohol is sold and the more taxes are collected, and with the weather about to improve as Winter becomes Spring and Summer, traditionally the Great British barbecue season, sales are sure to climb, adding a further burden to a National Health Service which is unable to cope with real illness as it, quite literally in a lot of cases, "fights" with the consequences of alcoholic excess's.

United Kingdom
According to the Department of Health's own figures, there are over 160,000 alcohol related admissions into the UK's hospital system per year, which equates to an 'intoxicating' 1220 hospital admissions per day, as a result of alcohol and its abuse. If we were to take those 1220 admissions out of the equation this would free up emergency room staff who would then be able to deal with people who are sick, or who have had accidents NOT as a result of consuming alcohol.

Using more Department of Health figures from the the start of the new millenium as a datum point, shows the numbers admitted into hospital, including casualty departments has shown an unprecedented and catastrophic rise of 99% across all age groups. As well as a jump of over 40% in the amounts of under-18's who have received emergency room treatment for liver problems, injuries from fighting and brawling whilst under the influence of alcohol, and those needing to have their stomach pumped in a bid to save their lives from alcohol poisoning.

Death with no ifs, buts or maybe's
Its a bleak picture which just gets worse as, according to the Office of National Statistics, since 1991, death's from alcohol related causes have doubled, from 4,144, to a massive 8,221in 2004 - funnily enough the same year cannabis was declassified.

According to Professor Ian Gilmore, who is president of the Royal College of Physicians, "It shows the current measures to stem alcohol-related health damage, and especially in our young people, aren’t working."

“That is why we have been looking for real evidence-based ways of reducing the burden of health damage for alcohol misuse, namely tackling price and availability.”

"But what does all this have to do with commercial cannabis operations in the UK and further afield," I hear you ask?

Cannabis is a realistic alternative for recreational intoxication and whilst a lot of people like to mix their intoxicants, taking cannabis and alcohol together, (or cocaine and heroin, prescription pills and alcohol etc), for a lot of people, cannabis is an alternative to alcohol and in fact a lot of people use cannabis to kick the alcoholic habit. Whilst this may be good for the alcoholics health, its also bad for the economy, as there are no taxes collected from cannabis use.

Europe
To prove a point , in Holland a good number of cannabis cafe's have chosen to stop selling alcoholic beverages. No beer, no "shorts", and no trouble as a result.

Also in Holland the government has for the last 30 years, decriminalised a small amount of cannabis for personal use and whilst the anti-cannabis brigade fill the newspapers with column after column of negative cannabis rhetoric, the fact is Holland is at the bottom of the European league for drug addicts, but at the expense of the alcohol industry.

The Netherlands does not suffer the commercial cannabis boom which is experienced anywhere which enforces cannabis prohibition, which proves once and for all if you remove the prohibition, by decriminalising the personal consumption of cannabis (decriminalising, not legalising, as the UK Liberal Democrat Party supports in their manifesto), this allows people to grow their own cannabis, and negates the need for Vietnamese organised criminals and their hydroponic cannabis gardens, shutting them down almost overnight.

"But" say the experts, "cannabis may have an adverse effect on 1 in 1000, or 1 in 10,000, causing, or leading to, cases of schizophrenia in those who are pre-disposed to the condition", and once upon a time I'm sure that would have been a valid enough reason to keep cannabis outlawed.

Yes it may, and it also may not. Today, in 2008, we can quite safely expect another 10,000 UK citizens to die as a direct result of consuming alcohol. We can realistically expect untold numbers of A&E staff to be both physically and verbally abused as they attempt to undertake their job on a daily basis, treating people tanked up on cheap fighting juice.

And we can expect the current cost of enforcing law against those who have drunk to much, to continue to climb sharply, as our towns and cities become no-go zones after 9pm every night.

Simply throwing more money at an age old problem isn't going to make a blind bit of difference. Especially when our hospitals can't cope as it is.

But removing the all out prohibition of cannabis, would make a significant difference to what has become the primary social issue in the UK.

Using the cannabis situation as a barrier to hide the true facts of alcohol and its effects on the Great British public has for decades, been a tactic used by government spin doctors, and regardless of what colour rosette they were wearing on election day.

But surely the time has come to wake up and smell the coffee.

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