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Tipsheet

Massachusetts Used A Military-Style Helicopter To Seize A Marijuana Plant From An Elderly Woman With Glaucoma

In what can only described as an absolutely absurd use of tax dollars, the Massachusetts National Guard and State Police used a helicopter to seize a single marijuana plant from an 81-year-old woman who was using the drug to treat her glaucoma and arthritis. Margaret Holcomb, of South Amherst, was growing the plant in her backyard fenced away from her neighbors.

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Although medical marijuana is legal in Massachusetts for these conditions, Holcomb is not a medical card holder. She said she was concerned about finding a doctor to sign off for one as well as the cost of marijuana that is sold through license dispensaries.

Margaret Holcomb said she was growing the plant as medicine, a way to ease arthritis and glaucoma and help her sleep at night. Tucked away in a raspberry patch and separated by a fence from any neighbors, the plant was nearly ready for harvest when a military-style helicopter and police descended on Sept. 21.

In a joint raid, the Massachusetts National Guard and State Police entered her yard and cut down the solitary plant in what her son, Tim Holcomb, said was a “pretty shocking” action — one that he argues constitutes unlawful surveillance and illegal search and seizure.

[...]

Holcomb said he was at his mother’s home eating a late lunch with his sister when they heard whirring blades and looked up to see a military-style helicopter circling the property, with two men crouching in an open door and holding a device that he suspects was a thermal imager to detect marijuana plants.

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Authorities also seized the plants grown by people who had legal medical marijuana cards, saying that they were visible from the street.

This is absolutely insane. The presence of a single plant that is used primarily for medicinal purposes is the definition of a victimless crime. Margaret Holcomb is hardly a drug kingpin, and it's definitely not necessary to send in a helicopter to take a plant. This is such a complete waste--especially since it's looking more and more likely that Massachusetts is going to legalize marijuana altogether in just over a month.

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