Marijuana’s Pauline Sabin?: “85-year-old Houston woman fighting to legalize marijuana”
I just got finished watching the last segment of the wonderful PBS Prohibition documentary, which stresses the role of Pauline Sabin, the first woman to sit on the Republican National Committee and the founder of the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform, who helped drive the movement to repeal the 18th amendment. With that history fresh in mind, I found especially interesting this news report from Texas which has the headline quoted in the title of this post. Here are excerpts:
“I’ve always been pretty outspoken,” said Ann Lee. At 85 years old, Ann Lee looks like anyone’s grandmother. “I don’t know whether it’s my age, the white hair, what is it, but it does seem to strike a chord,” said Lee.
But don’t let the white hair fool you. She’s a fiery Republican who believes you have the right to use marijuana. “It’s just me, I believe in this,” said Lee.
For Lee, it’s personal. She wasn’t always a supporter of weed. That changed when her son was bound to a wheelchair, and needed it to treat his condition. “We realized marijuana wasn’t the weed of the devil which I had been known to say,” said Lee.
She and her husband Bob fought to legalize weed since then. Bob died last week. Now it’s her job to finish what they started together. “This is heady stuff for this lady,” said Lee. “I’ve been an activist for many years, but I’ve never had the response that I’m now getting.”
She knows more about weed than someone half her age, and even has the occasional edible. Activists call her the perfect weapon in the marijuana reform movement. “It’s not Republican to support prohibition,” said Lee.
Some prior related posts: