Pubdate: Mon, 10 Oct 2016
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2016 The Boston Herald, Inc
Contact:  http://www.bostonherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Note: Prints only very short LTEs.
Page: 20

PUSHING THE LIMITS ON POT

OK, so maybe the helicopter was a little excessive.

It's reasonable to criticize the lengths that authorities went to in
an effort to confiscate a single pot plant from an elderly woman in
Amherst - though it should be noted that the backyard raid at Peg
Holcomb's home was just a small part of a larger marijuana eradication
operation.

But before sympathizers anoint the 81-year-old Holcomb a great martyr
for the marijuana cause, we would simply point out that in
Massachusetts there are legal means by which she could obtain
marijuana if she really does need it to keep her glaucoma at bay, as
she told the Herald.

And they do not include cultivating a 6-foot-tall marijuana plant in
the backyard, hidden among the raspberry bushes.

The Massachusetts law that allows the use of marijuana for medical
purposes permits those who get approval from a doctor to obtain it at
a licensed dispensary (there is one 10 miles from Holcomb's home).

If a patient has a hardship and can't get to a dispensary there is an
allowance for growing pot at home - but only with permission, in a
secure, indoor space, and only enough to provide for individual use.

Or, you know - you can take your chances without a doctor's
certification and with a giant weed plant out where the chickens roam
around. But don't be surprised when the authorities come knocking at
your door.

Holcomb is furious, claiming her Fourth Amendment right to privacy was
violated when the authorities flew over her property, which is how
they located her plant.

"This kind of thing can't happen," she told the Herald. "It smacks of
police state and fascism."

In fact what it smacks of is a person who flouted the law agreed to by
her fellow citizens, got caught - and is now being held up as a
convenient but entirely misleading poster woman for legalization.
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MAP posted-by: Matt