Domestic cannabis factories are increasingly becoming the main source of the drug within the UK. The use of trafficked children to oversee production has emerged as a worrying trend in recent years, confirmed by an Association of Chief Police Officers study last month.
Organised crime gangs have taken advantage of children, trafficking them to be "gardeners" in cultivation operations — often homes in residential areas filled with plants and heating and lighting equipment to create optimum growing conditions.
However, as police forces clamp down on the phenomenon, children found in drug factories are frequently mistaken for offenders rather than victims and tend to be criminalised instead of protected.
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