Pubdate: Thu, 07 Jul 2005
Source: Roslindale-West Roxbury Transcript (MA)
Copyright: 2005 Community Newspaper Company
Contact:  http://www2.townonline.com/roslindale/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3773
Author: Laura Crimaldi, Boston Herald
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

WR GRANDMA PUSHES FOR POT

At the ripe age of 64, Gramma Ganja is proud to say she's gone to 
pot. And she was heartened to see Boston ranked No. 1 in the United 
States in a recent federal survey of regions with the highest 
marijuana use. What's  more, there ought to be a law - legalizing pot 
- - said Jeanne "Magic" Ferguson of  West Roxbury, executive director 
of Gramma's for Ganja (grammasforganja.org),  who has been waging an 
Internet campaign for marijuana since the mid-1990s. "My son 
was  smoking cannabis 30 years ago, my grandchildren are suffering 
the consequences"  of the law, Ferguson said. "My granddaughter has 
just as much of a chance of going to prison as my son did. That's why 
I do what I do." A grandmother of five who wears hemp clothing, 
listens to Andrea Bocelli, belongs  to the League of Women Voters and 
ran for state representative in Washington  state, Ferguson said the 
first thing she ever did with marijuana was flush it  down the toilet 
- - after she found it in her 16-year-old son's drawer 30 years  ago.

That same  year, a friend brought her some pot to try and she's been 
toking ever since.

"I can't  wait until I can grow it in my back yard next to the 
asparagus and broccoli,"  said Ferguson.

The former  nurse said she turned to marijuana when she suffered a 
chemical poisoning that  left her skin red, bloated and unbearably 
itchy. Ferguson  says she has the support of three of her five 
children, including one who is a  Navy SEAL.

"There's a  bumper sticker, 'Well-behaved woman rarely make history,' 
that's my mom to a T,"  said Ferguson's daughter Marilyn Buxton, 37 
of St. Johnsbury, Vt. Ferguson  was inspired to start Gramma's for 
Ganja about 10 years ago, when she was  managing an apartment 
building in Seattle. She found out under Washington law at  the time 
that property owners could lose their buildings if their tenants 
were  busted for drugs. "I said, 'That's not right.' I got off my 
sofa and I haven't been back," Ferguson said. "I thought I'd be 
baking cookies for my grandkids. I  thought I'd have a different golden age."
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