While weed laws are becoming more progressive in many states across the US, cannabis cultivation can still get you some serious prison time in the UK.

Most smokers have no idea where their buds come from, but the higher demand and continued criminalisation of weed in the UK has engendered a black-market supply chain of human deprivation: ‘Cannabis slaves’, often trafficked from Vietnam, are forced to tend to massive grows worth millions in street value – completely against their will.

For spliff connoisseurs who have been smoking their whole adult lives and hold down regular jobs and have families, picking up poor-quality hydroponic weed from dodgy dealers in blacked out cars or down dark alleyways has become less and less desirable. Guerrilla growers are an online community of cannabis cultivators in the UK who harvest their weed plants in the wild, hiding in plain sight sometimes on the side of motorways.

Growing certain strains of cannabis that can withstand the British climate, many have been supplying themselves and their friends with hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of organic weed for almost a decade. It’s all grown outside in the sun, bypassing dealers and without being traced by the police.

Our drugs editor, Max Daly, linked us up with two guerrilla growers who were about to retire from the cultivation game, just as they were harvesting their last ever crop.

Click here to subscribe to VICE: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE

0:40 What are Guerrilla Growers?
1:33 Weed Crop
5:45 Risk of Getting Caught
6:45 Scouting Locations
7:15 Rippers

About VICE:
The Definitive Guide To Enlightening Information. From every corner of the planet, our immersive, caustic, ground-breaking and often bizarre stories have changed the way people think about culture, crime, art, parties, fashion, protest, the internet and other subjects that don't even have names yet. Browse the growing library and discover corners of the world you never knew existed. Welcome to VICE.

Connect with VICE:
Check out our full video catalog: http://bit.ly/VICE-Videos
Videos, daily editorial and more: http://vice.com
More videos from the VICE network: https://www.fb.com/vicevideo
Click here to get the best of VICE daily: http://bit.ly/1SquZ6v
Like VICE on Facebook: http://fb.com/vice
Follow VICE on Twitter:   / vice  
Follow us on Instagram:   / vice  

The VICE YouTube Network:
VICE:    / vice  
MUNCHIES:    / munchies  
VICE News:    / vicenews  
VICELAND:    / vicelandtv  
Broadly:    / broadly  
Noisey:    / noisey  
Motherboard:    / motherboardtv  
VICE Sports:    / noc  
i-D:    / idmagazine  
Waypoint:    / waypointvice