THE OTHER SIDE OF BREAD AND PUNA BUTTER HAWAIIAN PARADISE PARK, Hawaii

- -- Out of the fertile Puna soil, Jonathan Adler is building what he hopes
will be the mecca of medical marijuana.

As he finishes construction, Adler dreams of making the house ground zero
in the effort to legalize marijuana someday.

And once marijuana is legal, Adler believes, Puna's economy will take off
as outlaw growers become legal businessmen and demand grows. Then crime and
social problems linked to heroin, cocaine and "ice" will begin to ease in
Puna, Adler said.

He used to make thousands smuggling 20 to 30 pounds of “Puna butter”
marijuana each month on airplanes. Now he's a minister in the Religion of
Jesus Church who uses marijuana for prayer, healing, worship and marriage
ceremonies.

Adler grows marijuana plants openly on his property and challenges
authorities over his right to do so for medical and religious purposes.

"Just a minute, let me take my medication," Adler said as he lighted a koa
pipe holding a pinch of marijuana.

Adler pushes his views more forcefully than most people in Puna, but he's
hardly alone in dreaming of a day when marijuana is legal.

Throughout the sprawling district, even some of those who oppose illegal
drugs would like to see marijuana money flowing again through businesses
such as Hilo car dealerships that have suffered, said Councilman Al Smith,
who represents the bulk of the Puna district.

A lot of others simply don't like helicopters buzzing around looking for
plants and spraying pesticides on water sources and legal crops.

Adler, 47, said he has two doctors' prescriptions for marijuana to help his
asthma and insomnia. But his definition of who should be allowed to use
marijuana for medical reasons knows no limits.

"My feeling is every use of marijuana is medical," he said. "If you're
changing your body chemistry. And I'm in favor of every adult over age 18
to have the right to self-medicate.

"This community needs marijuana for every reason you can conceive of. Once
it's legalized, people will flock here by the hundreds of thousands to
witness the medical marijuana miracle."

It may be too simple to connect Puna's problems directly to the
multi-agency marijuana crackdown involving plant seizures, helicopter
overflights and arrests that began in the 1970s, as many of the area's
people argue.

Other factors can't be ignored, said Councilwoman Julie Jacobsen, whose
district includes part of upper Puna. Too many people have moved into the
district, and Hawaii's economy continues to struggle.

But she's among the people who wonder whether marijuana policies should be
changed. "It's a little too global to associate each and every problem in
Puna to the eradication," she said. "But the eradication is a waste of
resources, and it's not solving the problem.

Police Maj. David Kawauchi, who is responsible for the eastern side of the
Big Island that includes Puna, said police worry about harder drugs, but
cannot forget about marijuana.

"I can't see just ignoring it," he said. "As long as we're doing something
to control it, it's one less drug on the street."

In the center of the article we find a nice picture of Jonathan and his
favorite plants with the caption: Jonathan Adler makes no secret of his use
of marijuana for healing and in religious practices. If marijuana were
legalized, he says, Puna's economy would take off and drug-related crime
would drop off.