DEA destroys six-plant medical garden in Oroville raid
DEA agents destroyed six marijuana plants grown by Diane Monson at her Oroville home on 15 August 2002, over the objection of county deputies who deemed them legal. Monson used the cannabis on a doctor's recommendation and sued the federal government that October.
🇺🇸 Oroville, Butte County · California, United States
On 15 August 2002, deputies from the Butte County Sheriff’s Department and agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration came to Diane Monson’s home in the Oroville foothills.[1][2]The deputies concluded that her marijuana use was legal under California’s Compassionate Use Act, but after a three-hour standoff involving the county district attorney and the federal prosecutor, DEA agents seized and destroyed her six cannabis plants.[1][2]Monson recalled the sheriff getting “quite chesty” with the federal agents as the confrontation “got quite ugly.”[2]
Monson, 47, used marijuana on a doctor’s recommendation for a degenerative spinal disease that caused chronic back pain and constant muscle spasms, after prescription drugs proved ineffective or intolerable.[2]On 9 October 2002 she and fellow patient Angel Raich sued the US attorney general and the DEA administrator to stop federal interference with their state-legal medical grows.[1]
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