Pubdate: Sun, 26 Jun 2005
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Contact:  2005 The Boston Herald, Inc
Website: http://news.bostonherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Author: Laura  Crimaldi
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

GRAMMA GANJA'S CAMPAIGN IS SMOKIN'

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 yardnext to the asparagus and 
brocoli,"  said Ferguson.

The former  nurse said sheturned 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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