No mention of charges made. State has not legalized the stuff yet, but of course, will never legalize private growing of it, which avoids the inevitable taxes imposed, the real reason behind legalization, IMO. "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." http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...juana-plant/NoueuN1TgVInwfA56d3ajN/story.html
Well if it wasn't visible, how did they see it? I'm sure it wasn't a lucky guess....unless a neighbor told on her. I'm not understanding this story. You say it's illegal there. I had to look it up....she wasn't charged. It's also on the ballot and if it passes it can be cultivated.
@Chrissy Page T'warn't I saying it's illegal there, t'was the link: "Procopio said troopers have no option when they come across marijuana plants — they have to confiscate them. “They are illegal . . . and have to be seized, ” he said."
I'm quite confused but what's on my mind is that the authorities were lenient in consideration of the age of the woman. Marijuana is also illegal here and from what I read in the news, a person cultivating marijuana can be jailed with a life sentence just like one caught with a kilo of marijuana. By the way, an actor here named Mark was recently arrested by the cops for having a kilo of marijuana inside his car. It's funny because Mark denied that the kilo of weed was his but he admitted that he smokes marijuana and in fact he was on his way to buy marijuana from the province. What a silly admission.
Here in the United States, we have the uncertainty of legality because even when a state has legalized marijuana, it remains illegal under federal law.
True, think that was the case in Fresno a few years ago. Then it became illegal again....I really don't know where it stands now. I don't care at this point either. I would only use marijuana for pain and I don't think it would even work for me for that. I've never been a fan of pot and only tried it once when I was about 25 and had a horrible experience...never again.
I smoked pot a few times when I was younger. I hated the taste of it, and it made me feel tired and stupid.
Marijuana has some medical benefits but like all herbs unless a drug can be made from it to be patent they will fight hard to keep it away from people. They do have cameras which can pick out the exact colour of marijuana leaves so it can be picked up easily by a plane. I too experimented with it when I was younger. I also spent a year in Jamaica on my boat and seen firsthand what a group of people using it on a regular bases looks like and it is not that good.
I remember trying it when I was young, too, and I couldn't think straight, and even trying to talk at all was difficult. However, from what I have read about medical properties of marijuana, if that is what you are actually trying to accomplish, you would use a much different strain of the plant, and use it in a much different manner. The plants that were grown to make hemp rope with do not have much of the properties that cause people to get high, but the hemp plant was used for a lot of things back in the early parts of the 1900's, and people were actually encouraged to grow it. We had a large navy, and the ships needed lots of hemp for the heavy ropes. Once the strains that cause hallucinogenic reactions were developed, all the type of marijuana were lumped together as bad. To use it for its healing properties, you want the strains that do not make you high, and what you use is the fresh leaves, not the buds , which are the part that is usually smoked to get high. The fresh leaves are then put in a blender with a banana, milk, or whatever ingredients you want to use, and then made into a green smoothie. From what I have read, it is very helpful for pain like joint pain, arthritis, and similar ailments. I think that what they are growing and selling to people is probably still the same kind that people use to smoke and get high, and from what I have read, that kind does not really do much as far as actually healing you, it just makes you high enough not to bother about the pain.
It's just not my cup of tea and probably never will be. I would only do pills made out of it for pain but I'm skeptical.
Having general sensitivity to smoke, learned early-on as a kid, when we burned the fallen leaves out back, I just could not imagine purposely inhaling smoke into my lungs, that thought being reinforced after studying High School Biology, regarding the lungs. Nonetheless, my friend & co-worker convinced me to try the weed at his apartment. I was about 25 or so. Several folks were gathered about, and took turns taking a drag. As I expected, it burned my eyes, sinuses and throat, before even attempting to inhale it. Then, I waited. Nothing. They suggested the first time often results in that, the mind resisting effects. I thought to myself, "Keep it". Frank
People I know that know more about pot than I tell me the pot plants have a different heat output than other plants and can be found with special heat sensors. That helicopers with these sensors are sent out to look for illegal plants.
@Chris Ladewig Ahhh...... technology intervenes on behalf of those seeking solace from their everyday woes, choosing "weed" in preference to hard drugs, commendable for that, but not for adroitly evading the law. Law?? What possibly gives "Law" the right to control what products or essences we as individuals introduce into our bodies??? So long as no other individual is impacted, regardless if it kills us, helps us get through the night, or eases incessant pain, physical or mental, what "right" does Law have to regulate our individual activities? So long as NO other individual is affected......... Like saying, "We declare suicide to be illegal" (it actually is!), therefore if you must kill yourself, we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law". A crock of hoakum. If I know I'm dying of incurable cancer, for example, I couldn't care less about their laws. Frank
OK, (I can see @Yvonne Smith shaking her head at me now), but I'll bite this bullet anyway. Until in my 40's I was what use to be called hyper and high strung. From the time I was 13, doctors were always giving me downers. Sopars, Nodulars, Demerol, or whatever they thought would calm me down. None of them worked. They said it was needed because of the heart murmur they found when I was ten. On my 18th birthday my doctor sat me down, and told me that if I continued to throw those meds away, I would die because my heart was racing way too fast. Then he started talking to me about marijuana. But I had no clue as to what that was, so he explained it to me. He told me if I tried it, I might be able to come off the downers. Well that caught my attention. I didn't want to die, but I didn't like what those prescribed drugs were doing to me either. But there was a problem. I had no idea what the stuff looked like, much less how to procure it. So for over two years, my doctor was my supplier. It worked. December will be 47 years of daily smoking or ingesting it through cookies. I will say, I've never had an auto accident, ticket, or in any form been in trouble with the law. Most people and family have no idea of this. It was never about getting high for me, and that part actually stop for me after the third or fourth year. I raised a family, ran a company that employed 329 employees for over 15 years, and at the same time went to college full time for more than 19 years. I do not mess with other drugs, and I'm always fighting with my doctors when they want me to go on heavier drugs, If I agreed they would have on Hydrocodone, Somas, and Valium. I have standing perscription anytime I want them. I never been to a doctor that didn't want to go this route, but I'd rather not. That only leads to true addiction. I have worried about addiction, and I have stop for periods of up to a year, but eventually some bodily illness would crop up, and it's prescribe drugs or the other for me. Ok, take your best shot.