(Ed. note: A reader commented on the absurdity of having 20 police for 150 plants:
"Compared to an incident that happened in Bolton, Mass., last fall, they were seriously understaffed. We had "over a dozen" armed local and state police and national guard troops descend on a local cornfield last fall to uproot FOUR! rather pathetic marijuana plants. The plants had been located by helicopter aerial surveillance. So we can afford to have a helicopter flying around at god knows how much an hour, and we can afford to pay a dozen or more people to pull up four weeds in somebody's field, but we can't afford to fix the local school.")

POT ADVOCATES REPLANT AFTER DEA RAID

Medical marijuana crop grown on Lake County farm

A group of medical marijuana advocates spent the weekend planting 130 new cannabis plants at a farm in Lake County, two days after federal agents confiscated a fully grown crop there.

The San Francisco group Californians for Compassionate Use, led by Dennis Peron, had planned and publicized a weekend celebration—a "preharvest" party for a crop of marijuana grown at a Lower Lake farm that was supposed to bring relief to people with HIV, AIDS, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and cancer.

But a preparty crash by 19 agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration changed those plans.

The federal agents, accompanied by a deputy from the Lake County sheriff’s department, showed up at the farm at 7:30 Friday morning with a search warrant. The agents handcuffed several of the 12 people at the farm, including Peron, and for the next 90 minutes proceeded to chop down the 130 plants, Peron said.

One of the detainees got sick, vomited and had to take prescription medication during the raid, Peron said.

The Saturday and Sunday celebration was held anyway, Peron said. But instead of "harvesting" a crop of pot, partygoers chopped vegetables in the kitchen and planted a new crop of the outlawed herb.

"We’re mad, but we’re partying," Peron said.

Peron, who complained that people are being forced to purchase marijuana for medical reasons on the black market, said only one plant survived the DEA raid.

Peron opened the farm late last year as a "resort" for sick and dying people. The farm has eight bedrooms, small gardens and a pond.