Police asking: Is that house plant marijuana?

A drug bust last week in Salt Lake County has some law enforcement investigators concerned that indoor marijuana growing operations might be on the rise.

A search warrant at an Oquirrh Shadows home Wednesday yielded four pounds of "fairly high grade" marijuana and a semiautomatic rifle the suspect used to "defend his business," said sheriff's Sgt. Jim Winder.

The search resulted from an ongoing investigation into a suspected drug ring.

"We've been arresting people with high-quality marijuana," Winder said. "Through those low-level arrests we got pointed in the direction of this individual."

One man was arrested without incident. More arrests were pending. Winder said it was unclear whether the seized marijuana was being grown locally or being shipped in from out of state.

But the growing popularity of indoor hydroponic growing operations has Winder concerned.

"The quality of the marijuana and the price is starting to drive people into these grow operations. We're going to start seeing more of them in residential areas."

Hydroponics is a system some marijuana growers have started to use on a regular basis nationwide to grow their plants indoors rather than risk being caught growing marijuana plants out in the open. It involves an advanced watering system and requires little to no soil.

"For the quantity and quality you can grow indoors, it's starting to attract people to do that," Winder said.

Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Darren Carr said the growing popularity among drug dealers of hydroponic growing has spawned the equivalent of hydroponic head shops.

Just like there are a small number of stores that legally sell smoking pipes, there are now some stores that sell all the equipment needed to set-up a hydroponic marijuana farm, he said. What makes it technically legal is the stores do not sell drugs.

In March, the sheriff's office arrested two people who allegedly converted an entire house in the Cottonwood Heights area into a marijuana-growing operation that also used hydroponics. Some of the plants found in the house were four feet tall.

In April, South Jordan police were forced to shoot a man during a drug bust that included marijuana. The man allegedly tried to runover officers with his car before he was shot in the knee. The man was later released from the hospital and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail along with five other suspects for investigation of drug related charges.

In January, Iron County Sheriff's deputies stopped a car transporting 45 pounds of marijuana into Utah.

Canadian officials have been combating a recent increase in organized crime fueled by a multi-billion dollar marijuana industry. In early March, four Canadian Mounties were killed during a raid on a marijuana farm in a rural area.

Winder noted, however, that the marijuana problem locally was still relatively minor compared to the problem of methamphetamine.

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