In many cases, law enforcement also conducts trash pulls, where officers literally go through a house’s trash cans looking for raw ent, or receipts or other documentation reflecting a grow house operation

Even though several states have legalized marijuana, you can still be arrested and prosecuted for growing marijuana unlawfully. Law enforcement agencies at the federal and state level still devote significant resources into investigating illegal marijuana grow operations, which involve the use of multiple grow houses in residential neighborhoods to grow large amounts of marijuana indoors while avoiding detection from law enforcement.

Because marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, the DEA and other federal agencies are still aggressively investigating and prosecuting marijuana grow houses cases.

As the DEA noted in its 2020 Threat Assessment report, marijuana supply from foreign countries like Mexico has largely been supplanted by domestic-produced marijuana. In other words, marijuana arrests at the border are decreasing while increasing in the suburbs.

Whether the investigation is being conducted by federal or state law enforcement, or, as is often the case, both, law enforcement officers are trained to look for certain patterns in marijuana grow house cases, such as whether certain houses in a neighborhood are using a disproportionate amount of electricity, stealing utilities, emitting an odor of raw marijuana, or have covered windows or discarded growing equipment outside, such as potting soil or electrical supplies. (more…)