State Police, National Guard Seize Lone Marijuana Plant on 81-Year Old's Property

MASSACHUSETTS — To ease the pain and symptoms of glaucoma and arthritis, an 81-year-old living in South Amherst was growing a marijuana plant outside her home to use as medicine.

Margaret Holcomb said it also helped her sleep, and she reportedly grew the plant within a raspberry patch in her yard near a fence. On Sept. 21, a helicopter circled her home, and shortly thereafter, the Massachusetts National Guard and Massachusetts State Police came to her property to yank out the marijuana plant, reports the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Her son, Tim Holcomb, lives with his mom and was eating lunch when the helicopter circled, and described the event as "scary as hell" to the Gazette.

No criminal charges were filed, and the seizure was part of a collection that day, with 44 plants found on properties in the areas of Amherst, Hadley and Northampton, State police spokesperson David Procopio confirmed to the Daily Hampshire Gazette. He also said none of the property owners were charged, and that troopers explained the purpose of their visit.

Pro-marijuana bloggers are having a "field day" with the seizure of the senior's single pot plant. Leafly.com leads with, "The Massachusetts National Guard and the Massachusetts State Police teamed up last month to eradicate a pernicious threat to public safety: a single cannabis plant tucked away in an 81-year-old grandmother’s raspberry patch."

"If you were trying to come up with a headline that perfectly demonstrated why so many people have turned against keeping marijuana illegal, you probably couldn’t do better than this real headline from the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Massachusetts," writes Vox.com. "The story is just as absurd as it sounds."

PrivacySOS, which "shines sunlight on surveillance (SOS) and highlights actions you can take to protect your privacy," reported that in 2015, the Government Accountability Office reported that the U.S. military spent $3 billion on anti-drug operations between 2014-2015, which includes marijuana crop eradication.

Social media reaction erupted similarly in August when an 81-year-old cancer patient's four plants that he grew on his property on Martha's Vineyard were seized by the National Guard, state police and the DEA, reports The Natural News.

The raid in Western Massachusetts comes as voters hotly debate what will be ballot question 4 in the November election. The Massachusetts Marijuana Legislation Initiative, if passed, would allow the use, cultivation, possession and distribution of recreational marijuana for individuals at least 21 years old.