Even residents carrying licenses in medical marijuana states can fall prey to the program. In a Massachusetts raid last month, Procopio told the Daily Hampshire Gazette that 10 plants were seized from a couple's back yard because they were not kept in an enclosed area protected by a lock, as the statute requires. The growers, Patti Scutari and Francesco Compagnone, dispute that, saying that their entire yard is surrounded by a fence with a locked gate. Under Massachusetts law patients may grow as many marijuana plants as necessary to meet their medical needs.