Mattha Busby Reported On California Weed Surveillance Drones

For Reason, Mattha Busby reported on how weed surveillance drones have impacted people in northern California. He told Study Hall, “I went to Northern California to speak to people who have lost their homes over tiny ‘code violations’ after unwarranted drone flights looking for unpermitted cannabis.” 

He explained the stakes of his story, writing to Study Hall: “What happens when your backyard is no longer private, and your life can be upended by a silent camera in the sky?”

As part of the story he met with a  “dozen Sonoma, northern California, residents who might lose their home—or already have—because of unwarranted drone flight over their homes by authorities searching for unpermitted cannabis grows.”

He added, “They all insist their violations, if any, are minor and don’t justify severe punishment. The crackdown has led to six-figure fines, foreclosures, and evictions, even for many folks who did not grow cannabis at all. This is a story more than a year in the making that came after I started sniffing about among academics and lawyers for issues around the legalization of cannabis in the US.” 

Mattha Busby’s writing has appeared in The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, and other outlets.