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A message from
the author:

As I write this I am in my 70th year and have been a recreational and medical consumer of cannabis since 1964.

During the past 50 years I have waited patiently for both the law and the society around me to evolve to the point that I could comfortably acknowledge my preference.

That time has arrived.

I am currently, and have been since 1996, medically qualified to use cannabis under California law. Recently I began to cultivate cannabis for personal use because of the high cost of organically grown and tested medical marijuana which currently is not covered by health plans.

I hope to acquire enough experience in small scale cannabis production to be able to assist other medically qualified seniors on a limited budget like myself who wish to grow their own.** One of the groups doing similar educational outreach to seniors is The Silver Tour.

Now that recreational legalization has been achieved in four states and one foreign country in addition to the 23 states that make provisions for medical cannabis it is important to protect the rights of those who prefer to grow their own. Already we are seeing a coalition of big pharma and government regulators moving to protect commercial interests and tax revenues by treating cannabis as a pharmaceutical and banning home cultivation.

With the repeal of alcohol prohibition came laws that honored the tradition of production for home use while regulating its subsequent sale. That should be sufficient protection for commercial interests and an outright ban is not justified nor warranted. Especially since most seniors are on a fixed budget and those using cannabis on a daily basis for medical relief currently are incurring minimal costs of $100 - $300 per month.

I seriously doubt that the prices will drop with legalization and subsequent commercialization. Certainly the wide variety of strains currently available will be winnowed in the interest of standardization ... offering generic indica and sativa like house red or white wine. Without the diversity needed by medical users who must experiment until they find the varieties that work for them. If the only source of that variety is prohibitively expensive, not available or black market and home growing is not permitted what then? Are we going to jail those who ignore the law for the sake of their own health?

* "While self reported marijuana use by young adults has declined, consumption by older Americans has increased. Among those Americans age 65 and older, self reported use of cannabis rose from three percent in 1999 to 17 percent today. Among those aged 50 to 64, self reported cannabis use doubled from 22 percent in 1999 to 44 percent today."
http://www.gallup.com/poll/163835/tried-marijuana-little-changed-80s.aspx

** California Senate Bill 420 grants implied legal protection to the state's medicinal marijuana dispensaries, stating, "Qualified patients, persons with valid identification cards, and the designated primary caregivers of qualified patients ... who associate within the state of California in order collectively or cooperatively to cultivate marijuana for medical purposes, shall not solely on the basis of that fact be subject to state criminal sanctions."