Top cop says South Australia may be the ‘cannabis capital’ of Australia

COVID has decimated many sectors of the economy but in SA, police lament, the drug business has been booming, largely off the back of a surge in demand for one drug in particular - weed.

South Australia may be the “cannabis capital” of the country, one of the state’s top cops says.

While some drugs have come and gone in terms of popularity – methamphetamine has taken the place of heroin as Australia’s most pernicious drug – marijuana use has remained reasonably consistent.

Last year, however, as the country was plunged into lockdowns, highly accurate wastewater analysis showed an increase in the use of marijuana across SA.

The same analysis has allowed police to track the effect of major drug busts in real time, with big seizures often correlating with a dip in drugs being detected.

Detective Superintendent Steve Taylor, the officer in charge of the Serious and Organised Crime Branch of SA Police, said it was hard to tell whether or not that increased use could be directly attributed to coronavirus restrictions.

There are two things of which he is certain, though – the production of cannabis in SA is not decreasing and it is one of the major money spinners for organised crime gangs, including bikies.

Police have carried out a series of major cannabis busts in the past 12 months, putting a large dent in the supply of the drug in SA.

A hydroponic cannabis crop that was discovered at Smithfield in September 2020. Picture: SA Police.

They conducted one of the largest cannabis seizures in SA history last year when they swooped on a Buckland Park property, locating at least 10,000 plants growing in multiple glasshouses.

A large amount of dried marijuana was also found.

Eight people allegedly fled the property when police arrived at 8am on Tuesday, December 29. They were all found nearby and arrested.

A couple of weeks later, the serious and organised crime branch executed a series of searches on northern suburbs properties – that time uncovering more than 3000 marijuana plants and the hydroponic equipment used to grow them.

A year earlier, 7000 plants were found growing near Virginia.

Detective Superintendent Taylor said those busts took out significant chunks of SA’s marijuana market – and eliminated some of the big players in the drug’s production.

“Whenever you get large quantities like that, you could probably potentially get at least a kilo out of a plant so if you’re getting 7000 plants plus, I mean, it’s a pretty significant thing for us,” Detective Superintendent Taylor said.

Many of those busts were prompted by calls to Crime Stoppers by members of the public who had witnessed something they thought seemed suspect.

Cannabis seized during a raid at Globe Derby Park.

“Everything that goes through a Crime Stoppers centre is carefully assessed and analysed,” Detective Superintendent Taylor said.

“And if it’s warranted, well then it’s actioned into some operational activity and that’s a perfect example of how the community can help the police”.

Cannabis is now legalised and regulated in some parts of the western world – and is viewed as a more acceptable or less dangerous drug than many other illicit substances.

But Detective Superintendent Taylor said cannabis was one of the “cash cows” that helped organised crime gangs invest in harder drugs, such as methamphetamine, which ultimately had more serious societal and health consequences.

“They work hand-in-hand,” he said. “It’s just a commodity. And today it might be cannabis, tomorrow it might be methamphetamine or heroin.

Cash found along with cannabis hidden in a truck at Truro. Picture: SA Police

“These organised crime groups and syndicates … don’t really care what the commodity is, as long as it makes money. The nexus between illicit drugs and organised crime is irrefutable.”

Many gangs, he said, centred around someone who controlled multiple properties where cannabis could be grown – often rented and in suburban Adelaide.

He said “clean skins” were often given free accommodation in those properties on the condition that they maintained the cannabis crop as part of a “cottage industry”.

Larger busts often uncovered weapons and large amounts of ill-gotten cash.

Grow houses, he said, could be found in suburbs all over Adelaide – regardless of geography or socio-economic status.

A huge cannabis crop found in glasshouses at a property at Buckland Park in December 2019.. Photo: SA Police

“Most certainly, the majority of the cannabis we see is hydroponically grown by small operations, if you like,” Detective Superintendent Taylor said.

“I think it’s always been pretty well known that South Australia, unfortunately, has a bad reputation for being a bit of a cannabis capital of Australia. We see and intercept quite a lot of cannabis going interstate from South Australia.

“Typically what happens is, we’ll do some of our interceptions in trucks, or just normal vehicles, we’ll get some pretty significant seizures of, you know, 60 to 70 kilos plus.

“Those trucks are destined, normally, for the eastern seaboard where cannabis costs more money and we find that often it’s cash coming back or sometimes it’ll be methamphetamine coming back into South Australia.”

New technologies are available to help police locate grow houses – including infra-red technology that detects the heat created by hydroponic setups.

However, Detective Superintendent Taylor said eliminating cannabis from SA was a “joint concern” between police and the community.

“I think I’ve got a bit of a philosophy about drugs in general and I think the adage of it takes a whole village to raise a child – well, I think it takes a whole community to defeat drugs,” he said.

“And if you if you actually look at it, it probably starts from good parenting, good education programs, and those sorts of things.

“Good work with health, good treatment centres, good police work, but probably, above all, it’s is a good community response to drugs so that when people see something a bit suspicious, or they think something’s going on, they need to step up and actually tell the police.

“It’s a community problem – it’s not something that the police can fix by arresting people.”