Letters: Don't confuse med. cannabis with juveniles, gateway drugs

I am amazed how people think you can grow 99 mature cannabis sativa, or as it is commonly called, marijuana, plants in a 100-square-foot area. Try putting 99 mature tomato plants in a 100-square-foot area. I use tomatoes as an example because they are similar in size at maturity, as cannabis sativa plants produced in a common grow room. If you can do this then you should go into farming. I can barely get 15 plants, tomatoes and a few small citrus bushes, in my small greenhouse. If I packed my greenhouse with 99 mature tomato plants I would have to stack them on top of each other.

Another problem with growing any kind of plant is that they do not all survive. Out of 99 plants you might get a 60 to 80 percent success rate. Then you have to pull all of the male plants out. Male plants do not produce a usable product and they make your female plants produce seeds, which reduces your output of effective product.

Medical cannabis sativa helps many medically handicapped individuals have a more bearable life. It is a drug that has many uses and is cheaper when grown at home than a lot of prescription drugs with less side affects. Ingesting cannabis sativa is a preferred way to use it, which requires a larger supply. Let's not confuse medical cannabis sativa with juveniles and gateway drugs.

The three most accessible gateway drugs are tobacco, alcohol and pills in your medicine cabinet. Most juveniles will get some type of drug because they know who to go to among their peers. When I was in the seventh grade I chewed tobacco during lunch break. My friend's older brother supplied us. At high school parties we would have access to tobacco, alcohol, cannabis sativa and sometimes mushrooms.

Is your child really spending the night at their friends? Most of the juveniles at the parties were A and B students. This always surprised me. But this is a problem that has been around since before I was born. Try not to pull the Compassionate Use Act into juvenile delinquency.

Shawn Arrasmith

Crescent City