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£2 million cannabis farm found in a former NHS clinic during police raid

An Essex Police spokesperson said: 'Around 800 cannabis plants in various stages of growth were found'

Monday 22 June 2015 14:18 BST

Police raiding a former NHS clinic say they have uncovered a £2 million cannabis farm.

Areas of the former clinic, which now houses an unconnected pharmacy business on the ground floor in Harlow, Essex had been converted into a drug farm.

Eight treatment rooms had been stocked with lighting, watering and ventilation equipment for the plants.

Essex police raided the premises yesterday, finding that the growers had also bypassed the building’s electricity meter and installed a £50,000 ventilation system.

Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

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1/14Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

Barack Obama

"As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.”

Getty

Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

Bill Maher

"Look, I have never made a secret of the fact that I have tried marijuana... About 50,000 times."

Getty Images

Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

Boris Johnson

"It was jolly nice. But apparently it is very different these days. Much stronger. I've become very illiberal about it. I don't want my kids to take drugs."

AP

Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

Bill Clinton

"I experimented with marijuana a time or two."

Reuters

Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

Jon Stewart

“Do you know how many movies I wrote when I was high?”

Comedy Central

Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

Harriet Harman

"I did, when I was at university, smoke cannabis once or twice." But she quickly added she had not taken the drug since then. "I have indulged in the odd glass of wine but not cannabis."

PA

Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

Martha Stewart

“Of course I know how to role a joint.”

Getty Images

Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

Bill Gates

In Stephen Manes’ biography about the Microsoft founder, he writes: “As for drugs – well, Gates was certainly not unusual there. Marijuana was the pharmaceutical of choice…”

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

Oprah Winfrey

Asked by Andy Cohen when the last time she’d smoked cannabis was, she answered: “Uh … 1982.” “Let's hang out after the show,” Cohen joked. “Okay,” Winfrey said, laughing. “I hear it's gotten better.”

Getty Images

Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

George W. Bush

"I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."

Getty

Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

Sarah Palin

"I can't claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled.”

AP

Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

David Letterman

“I went through one period when I smoked a surprising, a really breath-taking, amount of grass almost every night.”

Getty Images

Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

Morgan Freeman

"Never give up the ganja."

Getty Images

Unexpected successful people who have admitted to smoking cannabis

Steve Jobs

“The best way I would describe the effect of the marijuana and the hashish is that it would make me relaxed and creative.”

The cannabis growers moved in after the rooms, previously occupied by the Essex Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, fell vacant in March 2014.

The abandoned upstairs rooms are the only part of Wych Elm House involved in the operation, which is close to the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Experts believe the farm was worth £2 million and capable of producing an £800,000 crop of super-strong cannabis every six weeks.

An Essex Police spokesperson said: "Around 800 cannabis plants in various stages of growth were found when police executed a search warrant at disused offices close to Harlow town centre early on Sunday morning.

"Officers from Essex Police seized the plants during the operation at Wych Elm House in Hamstel Road.

"Inquiries are continuing."