Pubdate: Sun, 09 May 2010
Source: Albany Democrat-Herald (OR)
Copyright: 2010 Associated Press
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/HPOp5PfB
Website: http://www.democratherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/7
Author: Kristen Wyatt
Cited: Moms4Marijuana http://www.moms4marijuana.webs.com
Cited: NORML Women's Alliance: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID-8059
Cited: Marijuana Mother's Day card 
http://www.womensmarijuanamovement.org/content/tell-your-mothers-day

POT ACTIVISTS ENLISTING MOMS FOR LEGALIZATION PUSH

Moms got tougher drunk-driving laws on the books and were directly 
responsible for passing and then repealing alcohol Prohibition. Now 
marijuana activists are trying to enlist the nation's mothers in 
legalization efforts with a sales pitch that pot is safer than booze.

The nation's largest marijuana legalization lobby recently started a 
women's group. The Moms4Marijuana website draws thousands. And just 
in time for Mother's Day, a pot legalization group in Denver has 
created a pink-carnation web card asking moms to support legalization.

These marijuana moms argue that pot is no worse than alcohol, that 
teens shouldn't face jail time for experimenting with it and that 
marijuana can even help new mothers treat postpartum depression.

"I know so many mothers who support this but aren't willing to come 
out and say it," said Sabrina Fendrick, head of the Women's Alliance 
at the Washington-based National Organization for the Reform of 
Marijuana Laws, or NORML.

Marijuana activists say they need more moms to publicly back pot use 
if they are to succeed with public officials.

"The mother is the first teacher, who you turn to for direction in 
life," said Serra Frank, a 27-year-old mother of two in Boise, Idaho, 
who founded Moms4Marijuana in 2005. It has no formal membership, but 
Frank says its website has had more than 12,000 visitors.

Pot activists say both genders sometimes find it easier to attend 
protests or lobby lawmakers about pot than to tell their mothers they 
smoke weed. So legalization groups hope that if moms, arguably the 
nation's most powerful lobby, get on board with making pot legal, 
laws will change in a hurry.

"All the things moms get behind, people listen," said Diane Irwin, 
48, a medical marijuana grower in southern Colorado who also is a 
mother of two.

There's still a marijuana gender gap. According to an Associated 
Press-CNBC poll released last month, women opposed legalization in 
greater numbers than men. Just under half - 48 percent - of male poll 
respondents opposed legalization to 63 percent of women.

"We have enough problems with alcohol. I feel if we legalized it, it 
would make people say it's OK," said 37-year-old mother Amanda 
Leonard of St. Augustine. Fla., one of the poll respondents

Trying to soften moms up a bit, Denver-based Safer Alternative For 
Enjoyable Recreation, or SAFER, is asking members to "come out" about 
their pot use this Mother's Day and argue that pot is safer than 
booze. The group says it has about 20,000 members nationwide.

SAFER's online Mother's Day card has a typical start _ "Thank you for 
raising me to be thoughtful and compassionate" _ then transitions to: 
"I want to share some news that might surprise you, but should not 
upset you: I believe marijuana should be legal."

For $10, card senders can add a book for their moms titled "Marijuana 
is Safer." The book, published last year, argues that marijuana is 
healthier than booze. SAFER says several thousand copies have been 
sold, and group members handed out free copies as Mother's Day gifts 
to Colorado's 37 female lawmakers last week.

There's no good national count of how many mothers use pot, but 
anecdotal evidence suggests plenty do. Moms from Florida to 
Washington are facing criminal charges for using marijuana or 
supplying it to their children.

In February, 51-year-old Alaska mom Jane C. Cain was arrested along 
with her 29-year-old son for allegedly growing pot in the house. The 
Wasilla woman says she initially feared reprisals from neighbors and 
didn't answer the door.

"But it turned out people were just coming by to bring homemade food, 
casseroles and cakes and such," Cain said with a laugh. Her case is 
still pending, but Cain says that even conservative neighbors say 
she's not wrong to use marijuana for her frequent migraines, though 
medical marijuana isn't legal in Alaska.

"Now I go wherever I want and hold my head up high," Cain said. "Five 
or 10 years from now, people who oppose marijuana will be considered 
old-fashioned. It's a benign substance, so why shouldn't we have it?"

Irwin, the Colorado medical pot grower, said mothers who use 
marijuana face a stigma men don't. Irwin says she secretly used 
marijuana while pregnant to fight morning sickness and after giving 
birth to battle postpartum depression. Since she started growing pot, 
Irwin said she's run into many moms who admit to using the drug. She 
argues that even children could benefit from marijuana use, though 
Irwin never gave either of her kids pot nor smoked it in front of them.

In fact, she remembers flushing her son's pot down the toilet when he 
was a teen. But last year, after her now-grown son started a Denver 
marijuana dispensary, Irwin sold her hair salon, bought a greenhouse 
and started raising pot for him.

"I look at the kids now who are so medicated, on Ritalin and all the 
rest, and I'm wondering why we don't explore what's natural, and 
that's marijuana," said Irwin, who is moving to Denver to work 
full-time at her older son's dispensary.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake