I receive Google alerts every day for “women and marijuana” as part of my ongoing research for Freedom is Green. It’s usually a strange compendium of criminal reports (including two women who were found pantless in their car after St. Patrick’s day. Ladies, reign it in!), political and legal issues, and scientific reports.
One thing for sure: the alerts have been increasing in size and strangeness. Today, I read about the trial of one of the biggest marijuana crop busts in Australia’s history, spearheaded by a man who planned on using the funds for a massive anti-abortion campaign (to the tune of $69 million.)
Michael Bennet Gardner Sr. argued in his defense because, apparently, he possessed certain memories that would aid his cause:
Mr Gardner told the court he was in a unique position to argue against abortion as he could remember his time in the womb.
He said women who had abortions carried demons with them for the rest of their lives and argued society was doomed for allowing them to take place.
“Abortions are an act of treason against the reasons our men fought and died on the cliffs of Gallipoli,” Mr Gardner said.
He made his submissions wearing a ragged shirt that was missing the back panel, saying it was an ancient Jewish custom for grieving people to tear their clothes.
He apparently believes in shackling his children and forcing them into hard labor as well as torturing animals. So there you go. Radical conservatism and flagrant nutjobs aren’t beyond the use of marijuana to further their cause.
The right and the left continue to collide and intermingle in Connecticut, where Connecticut voters overwhelmingly support the use of medicinal marijuana with a doctor’s prescription, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.
Great news, right?
Well, this same group also strongly supports the death penalty, calling a legislative proposal to abolish it a “bad idea” by a margin of 62-31 percent.
We seem like a nation (or a world) of a fractured and mercurial belief systems that changes from day to day. No surprise.
I’ll continue to monitor and relay the varied stories…though the pantsless women types always have a special place in my heart.
Here’s a little excerpt. (Note their refusal to don pants even after instructed by the cops. Rebel.):
Two women wearing nothing but shirts were found by a Baldwin Borough police officer inside of a gray Ford Focus stuck on the railroad tracks along Streets Run Road near Route 51 at around 2:59 a.m. on Saturday, St. Patrick’s Day.
When the officer approached the Focus, he smelled the strong odor of alcohol, according to his report.
The officer requested numerous times that the driver—Andrea M. Vennare, 23, of 233 Albany St. in Pittsburgh’s Ridgemont neighborhood—get dressed so that he could put her through field-sobriety tests, but Vennare refused. Eventually, Vennare failed all field-sobriety tests and a breath-analyzer test before being arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.
Vennare said that she accidentally drove onto the railroad tracks.
Before being taken to the Baldwin police station, Vennare and the other woman in the Focus—a 22 year old who has not been charged with any offenses—both finally put on their pants.
See? Happy ending.
Beth Mann is a popular blogger and writer for Open Salon and Salon. She is also an accomplished artist with over 15 years of experience, as well as the president of Hot Buttered Media. She currently resides at the Jersey shore where she can be found surfing or singing karaoke at a local dive bar.
Contact: maryjane {at } freedomisgreen.com