© Sam MoorePaul Jackson shows the stump of one of his confiscated cannabis plants.
In a gross display of wasted taxpayer dollars, dozens of Massachusetts National Guard personnel, operating under a grant from the DEA, alongside Massachusetts State Police, descended into the backyard of an 81-year-old cancer patient in a raid last week — to
protect society from the dangers of his four marijuana plants.
Paul Jackson, 81, of Martha's Vineyard,
grows cannabis to make medicine. His plants, along with several other plants, became the target of law enforcement last week in a crackdown on hardened criminals who'd dare to grow a plant that helps them.
Jackson was in his backyard last Tuesday when plainclothes men and a helicopter descended on his property. With no warrant, and without showing identification, these
heroes ripped Jackson's plants from the ground.
"They just come charging through and start cutting it down," Jackson said in an interview with the
MV Times.According to the MV Times, Mr. Jackson, a
lifelong Islander and renowned organic gardener with over 300 ribbons from the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Fair, expressed both bewilderment and disgust when he spoke to The Times on Friday.
"I told them they don't know what they're doing, they're destroying it and it could be used for good purposes," he said. "I know because I went through it before. You wrote about it in
The Times. I had the article framed, took it out to show them; I said, 'This is proof of what it does,' but they didn't want to hear it."
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