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."