Pubdate: Thu, 30 Oct 2014
Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2014 Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Contact: http://www.heraldtribune.com/sendletter
Website: http://www.heraldtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/398
Author: John Azar

GRANNY KNEW MARIJUANA

With all the debate over Amendment 2, I would like to add a short
story about my dear grandmother.

She was born and raised in Canada. One of 23 siblings, she married my
grandpa and moved to Sarasota in 1921. She was a staunch Catholic and,
as would be expected, old-fashioned. She was also stricken with
severe arthritis, her fingers twisted and had to walk with two canes
because of her knees. It was not easy for her.

As a teenager in the mid-1960s, while visiting with my granny, I got
hungry and went rummaging through her cupboard for food when I came
upon a mayonnaise jar full of what I knew to be marijuana. I took the
jar to Granny and asked her if she knew what it was.

She told me that she wasn't sure what it was but that her sister would
send it to her from Canada and that she would make tea with it when
her arthritis got bad. She said it relieved the pain in her hands.
Knowing how old-fashioned she was, I did not tell her they could send
her to prison for it.

After she passed I inherited some books from her, one of which is the
Merck & Co. Ready Reference Pocket Book for Physician and Surgeon,
published in 1911. When looking through this book of ailments and the
remedies available in 1911 through Merck, I suddenly realized: Granny
knew.

John Azar

Sarasota
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MAP posted-by: Matt