CANNABIS GRAN'S BID TO BE MP
Source: The Hexham Courant
Pub date: Friday March 4, 2005
Subj: Cannabis Gran's Bid To Be
MP
Author: David Knox
Web: http://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/viewarticle.asp?id=186450
Cannabis Gran's Bid To Be MP
TYNEDALE’S cannabis-cooking granny Patricia Tabram is bidding to become
an MP.
The 66-year-old from Humshaugh will be sentenced at Newcastle Crown
Court next week on a charge of possessing cannabis with intent to supply.
Police seized 242 grammes of the drug worth over ukp800 during a
raid last year at her home, and also confiscated 31 cannabis plants.
But the former chef is pinning her hopes on staying out of prison and
entering the campaign trail at the General Election.
Mrs Tabram will challenge Labour MP and leader of the House of Commons
Peter Hain, for his Neath seat in South Wales.
She said: “I was at the Legalise Cannabis
Alliance conference last week in Norwich and they have asked me to be their
candidate.
“The Legalise Cannabis Alliance say I’m their face of middle England.”
Since pleading guilty to possessing cannabis in January, Mrs Tabram has
become the face of an elderly generation who take the drug for medicinal
purposes. And her small semi-detached bungalow in Humshaugh has become a campaigning
headquarters.
Over the past few weeks, with help from friends, the widow has been
writing to every MP in the country.
Accompanying each of the 659 letters is a nine-page report into the
side-effects of prescribed drugs.
She said: “I am hoping at least one MP will listen. I gave this report
to Tony Blair three weeks ago with a letter I took to Downing Street but I’ve
had no reply.
“Whatever happens at court next week I won’t be giving cannabis up. The
police will just have to keep coming round and taking my food away.”