Pubdate: Sun, 14 Apr 2013 Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI) Copyright: 2013 Star Advertiser Contact: http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154 Author: Bernice Romero Page: F3 CANNABIS PLANT HAS MANY SOCIAL BENEFITS Why is the cannabis plant such a controversial issue? Times have changed. With today's research and knowledge about this plant, you would think that it would be time to legalize. We need to see this plant as a resource for food, energy and medicine. I have learned that this amazing plant can produce paper and its growing cycle is 12 to 14 weeks versus a tree taking 20 years to mature. This means saving the trees that produce cleaner air and not destroying forest species. It's time for our elected officials and our public to start doing their homework on this amazing plant. We need to see this plant legalized, so it can bring in tax revenue, create jobs and provide safer organic material for medicine. More important, we can make room in our prisons for true criminals. Bernice Romero Aiea - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom