Never come between an 81-year-old and her marijuana plant
Peg Holcomb, an 81-year-old Amherst resident, has been nurturing her single marijuana plant, nestled within the raspberry bushes in the farthest corner of her Amherst backyard, for years. Never caused any problems with neighbors or police, she said.
Until the afternoon of Sept. 21, when a “very low-flying, official-looking helicopter” armed with camera-pointing men flew around her backyard, a warning of what was to come: several police vehicles — many of them already full to the brim with pot, she said — descending onto her driveway to confiscate the plant.
State Police spokesman David Procopio said the marijuana “eradication operation” was carried out in conjunction with the Massachusetts National Guard, a yearly exercise made possible by a $60,000 US Department of Justice grant.
In all, 44 plants were taken from seven properties in Hadley, Northampton, and Amherst.
“The operation utilizes a spotter from the MA National Guard Counter Drug Program in the helicopter,” Procopio said in an e-mail.
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