It may be illegal, but the sale of cannabis is big business in the UK. A 2018 report from the Institue of Economic Affairs concluded that the black market trade of cannabis in the UK is worth over £2.5 billion.
It's no surprise then that criminals produce the class B substance on a huge - sometimes industrial - scale. Of course, farming the drug comes with risks, and Northumbria Police have raided a number of cannabis farms across the North East in recent months.
In many cases the farms are tended to by illegal immigrants 'employed' by drug traffickers - to the point where a 2020 study by the University of Cambridge argued the practice was a "modern slavery blindspot."
