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."