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UK: Cannabis gran lodges court appeal

Adam Jupp

Evening Chronicle

Thursday 19 Apr 2007

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Cannabis gran Patricia Tabram is appealing against her conviction.

The 68-year-old, of Humshaugh, Northumberland, was found guilty of
cultivating and possessing the class C substance in March.

She claims she uses the drug as a pain reliever to treat a neck
complaint sparked by two car crashes and denied the charges against her.

But a judge ordered Mrs Tabram to do 250 hours' unpaid work and pay
£1,000 costs after a jury convicted her at Carlisle Crown Court.

And despite being warned she faces eviction from her housing association
bungalow and a spell behind bars, she told the Chronicle she would
continue using the drug.

Now, we can reveal she has lodged papers with London's Court of Appeal
in a bid to have the conviction overturned.

A judge has not been allocated to her case yet and a hearing is still
set to be arranged.

Mrs Tabram began using cannabis to relieve the neck pain she had
suffered for many years as the result of two car crashes. She claims
prescribed medicines make her ill and without cannabis she would be in
agony and unable to sleep.

When police raided her house in 2005 they found cannabis plants growing
in her wardrobe and jars of powdered cannabis in kitchen cupboards.

Mrs Tabram told the Chronicle she takes 0.1g of cannabis five times a
day. She said: "I soak it in whatever I'm going to use it in, cream,
milk, butter, or oil for 24 hours then I cook with it in cakes,
casseroles or hot chocolate."

The jury at Carlisle Crown Court heard Tabram's claims that she used
cannabis to ease her depression, as well as the aches and pains she suffers.

The jury of six men and six women came back with unanimous guilty
verdicts for the two counts, one of possessing the drug and one of
cultivating it.

And it has emerged that she tried to hide the Class C drug in court
while the trial was taking place. Mrs Tabram hid the small bags of
cannabis in her bra and brought them into court on the first day of her
trial.

She was also given a suspended six-month jail sentence at Newcastle
Crown Court in April 2005 by Judge David Hodson after she was found with
plants and cannabis worth £850, which she used to make curries,
casseroles, biscuits and soups for local people.

But while she admits growing her own cannabis, Mrs Tabram swears she
would never sell it to anyone else.

 

 

 

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