Living next door to Mary Jane

Have you ever noticed that your neighbor's house smells vaguely of marijuana? There could be a number of reasons for that: Cheech and Chong moved in next door, maybe, or the house next to yours was stuffed stem to stern with marijuana plants. That turned out to be the case in one Hyde Park home where police found an estimated 1,000 plants in a sophisticated forced-growing setup during a raid Friday.

It seems neighbors had noticed a distinctive odor coming from the house in the 1200 block of West Drew for some time. They tipped off the cops, who began surveilling the place about a month ago. On Friday night, police caught two men leaving the house with several items related to growing marijuana (including timers, lighting systems and a book on how to grow marijuana — smart!); they got a search warrant and entered the house, where they found what the Chronicle describes as a very high-tect operation: a thousand plants growing in plastic trays with a timed watering system, hydroponic equipment and special lights that simulated sunlight. Each room was reportedly set up to make the plants think they were growing in different seasons, which would allow for year-round harvesting. According to KHOU, so much electricity was being used to power the setup that officers called in HFD to make sure they won't be electrocuted while they were checking the place out. How would a person pay an electric bill like that at today's rates? You'd almost have to be a drug dealer or ... oh, wait. (Actually, the system had been wired to pirate the electricity, so no one was paying the bills.)

The two men arrested were Tan Khac Nguyen, 30, and Thien Quang Nguyen, 35; narcotics officer Sgt. John Yencha said neither is cooperating with police "at all." Yencha said the home's previous owner sold the house to Nguyen and Nguyen in October, and though neighbors noticed they re-wired the house, they never moved in. No wonder: KHOU reports the pot plants filled the house to such an extent that there wasn't even room for a bed. Experts said each plant could produce about four pounds of marijuana, meaning the stash could be worth millions of dollars.