NPR: Vietnamese-Owned Pot ‘Grow Houses’ Flourish in Pacific Northwest

By John | Monday, November 26, 2007 | No Comments

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marijuana leaf NPR: Vietnamese Owned Pot Grow Houses Flourish in Pacific Northwest I’m a big fan of National Public Radio (NPR), and heard this piece in the car while driving home tonight: “Pot ‘Grow Houses’ Flourish in Pacific Northwest” which discussed the growing trend of “grow houses” – growing marijuana indoors, found in neighborhoods around the country, but becoming especially common in the Pacific Northwest — particularly in the suburbs of Seattle.

The most interesting part of this story relevant to 8Asians is:

“Largely Run by Vietnamese Immigrants – Peter Truong is a community service officer for the sheriff’s department in Seattle. He speaks Chinese and Vietnamese — also spoken by most of the people busted in grow houses around Seattle. Truong is constantly being called in by local police departments for help questioning the people arrested in the grow houses. “A couple of weeks ago, I turn my cell phone off, my home phone off, because I got so tired,” Truong says. Truong immigrated to the United States in 1975 and has worked with the sheriff’s department for 20 years. He says the people who live in grow houses tend to come from Vietnamese communities in other places — often Massachusetts and Vancouver, Canada. They’re recruited by the grow operation owners to tend the plants, and they’re told to keep a low profile in the suburban neighborhoods where the houses are located. “They live normal life,” Troung says, adding, “Really polite. You never know what inside.” Truong says the only tell-tale sign he’s noticed is the rash that people get when they tend the plants. He guesses it’s caused by the chemicals, or some other side effect of living in close quarters with hundreds of marijuana plants.”

I wonder how well rooted in fact this reporting is….As I had posted last week, there is a large Vietnamese-American population in San Jose. I wonder if the trend is similar in the Bay Area?

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