While my heart goes out to anyone who gets arrested for any number of plants--I think that report shows pretty clearly again that the DEA is demonized about exactly as much as the DEA demonizes cannabis cultivators.
It really goes both ways on this one ladies and gents. The DEA administration is absolutely ridiculous--and I'll give you that freely without argument, but most of the boots on the ground type of guys are just doing their jobs and following up where the evidence leads them.
1,000 plants is clearly not within the purview of state law--and while again I think constitutionally we should have the right to grow what we want when we want, that right is currently not recognized and the enforcement as it regards this issue is shown repeatedly to follow exactly the roadmap that Obama laid out (i.e. people following state law get a pass--those who don't face federal prosecution).
I think really what goes so far towards demonizing it is that the penalties, as was mentioned here, ARE so hefty.
It feels wrong that growing a plant holds a 5 year mandatory minimum, yet for some reason a fair number of rapists are able to get out prison with the same sentence. The shit doesn't match up, and I'm on board with that--but that is a legislative problem, not an administrative one.