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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: I'm No Dope
Brenda Hickman Evening Chronicle, Newcastle
Tuesday 25 Jan 2005 Pottering about her cottage kitchen with her grey hair and spectacles, granny Patricia Tabram cooked up a storm. The 66-year-old widow, who prides herself on her home-made herbal cookies, casseroles and soups, today became the most unlikely drugs dealer in the North East. Defiant Tabram is facing jail after admitting possessing cannabis with intent to supply from her home in East Lea, Humshaugh, near Hexham. She told the Chronicle: "I had been using cannabis to bake in my food for months, since I was introduced to it in February 2004. I'm sure the whole village knows about it. "I have suffered from illnesses including tinnitus and depression for several years and NHS medicines bring me out in a rash. "I believe cannabis should be made legal for medical reasons. It's a natural herb. It has given me natural pain relief, as it has for my other friends who are suffering from MS and other conditions." Northumbria Police were tipped off about the savoury smells and drugs activity at her remote bungalow and raided the premises twice in May and June last year. Since then, she hasn't been cooking up cannabis. She said: "I'm a good cook and I used the stuff I'd bought from a pub in Byker to put in stews, soups, curries and chocolate cake and desserts. I was known for my chicken and leek pie and lemon and lime cheesecake specialities." Tabram also tried growing hash from seeds. Her plants reached about 10 inches high before the police found them and took them away. "If they send me to jail, I can finish writing my book about the merits of medicinal herbal cannabis," she said. "I want people to know NHS medicines are poisoning them instead of treating their illness. "If Jeffrey Archer can write a book in prison, so can I." Tabram was formally cautioned for possession and cultivation of controlled drugs after the first raid in May. She appeared at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday, having earlier pleaded guilty on December 13 last year in front of Judge Beatrice Bolton to a single charge of possessing cannabis with intent to supply. That hearing was then adjourned for a possible Newton hearing to decide if she should be sentenced on the basis of what she told police in interview, namely that she had clubbed together with others in a group of elderly people to get cannabis for various medicinal reasons. In the event, after discussing the case, the prosecution decided not to challenge that basis. The case has now been further adjourned until March 11 for sentence. The court has called for reports to be prepared by a probation officer and a psychologist. Tabram was remanded on bail with a condition of residence. The hearing was told the cannabis seized weighed 242 grams and was worth UKP 850. It was said to be of the skunk cannabis variety. The court also heard that self-seal bags recovered were to be used to preserve the cannabis once it had been separated ready for supply to the other people who she has not named. Carl Gumsley, defending, said: "She had purchased it on their behalf." Tabram, said: "Five police arrived in May and said they knew I had cannabis. They said they had been told it was in the hut outside, and I said it wasn't. "When they searched and found nothing I said I told you they weren't in the hut, they are in the attic. "The police took 31 seedling plants from the attic. They weren't very pleased when I said they couldn't take the soil or the huge pots because they were mine." South Shields-born Tabram ran the Zodiac Centre Restaurant, in Edinburgh, with her husband who she later divorced. The couple had two children, a boy and a girl. Her depression started after the death of her 14-year-old son Duncan in 1975. She found him dead in bed. "It was such a shock. I never really got over it. It is still painful to recall what happened to Duncan," she said. She remarried and had a second son, Colin, 25, but her husband, David, died from cancer. She has two grandchildren but hasn't had contact with them or her daughter for several years. Tabram was involved in a car crash off the A69 while waiting in a line of traffic. She suffered whiplash injuries and had to wear a surgical collar. The pensioner also suffers pain from a lower back injury, and arthritic knees. She has almost finished a book about her experiences called Grandma Eats Cannabis, which she hopes to have published. "I don't believe cannabis is a drug, like heroin and cocaine," she said. "I have researched a lot on the internet and got in touch with the Cannabis Alliance. I also visited the Hemp Fair at Wembley Stadium in London. "Several friends found out my interest and how I liked to bake it in my food to help ease my ailments. I have taught others how to cook with it." Tabram took her quest for medicinal hash relief further and became involved with an unnamed drugs dealer in Hexham. Her home was raided the second time in June when police found packets of cannabis bagged up for her friends who had pooled around UKP 150 each for their supply. "I hadn't asked them to contribute to the stash. They wanted the stuff to help them relieve pain," she added. "But the police raided my home the day after I picked up a nine-bar of the quality cannabis from a man I arranged to meet in a car park in Hexham," she said. "I was charged with possession with intent to supply and I went to Hexham Magistrates' Court where I at first pleaded not guilty as I didn't see cannabis as a drug." "I had been going on the bus to Byker in Newcastle to get small amounts of cannabis, at around UKP 20 a time. It was all I could afford as a pensioner. That was used in the cooking. When I got a chance to get more and help out my friends, I met a supplier." Tabram said she was scared, but after a series of rendezvous with the dealer in coffee shops, the man arranged to hand over the stash. "I took the envelope with the kitty money and gave it to him. He pulled out a package from under his coat. It was similar to an inside gun shoulder holster pouch," she said. "He gave me a nine bar, and I asked him if he wanted to count the cash. He said I didn't look the sort of person who would want to cheat anyone. He gave me a little bit extra of the loose stuff." Police seized the high-grade hash before she had time to distribute the portions she had bagged up for her friends. Tabram said: "They wanted to know who the dealer was and where the cannabis was going, but I didn't know his name. "The officers also took my diaries, my nail scissors which I had used to cut up the buds, and my pamphlets and books which I had used for research for my book, and some mixing equipment." True-To-Life Movie Patricia Tabram's experience was echoed in the film Saving Grace. Actress Brenda Blethyn played a granny housewife who turned to DIY hydroponics to grow cannabis in her hamlet home. However, the comedy uses the image of an adorable granny-type lending her green thumb to the cannabis trade. Blethyn's role as Grace switches from naive to determined pot grower. She says in the film: "I'm becoming a drugs dealer!" A pair of Grace's sewing circle pals mistake the pot for a new kind of tea and Grace herself decides to try her product. The whole town eventually participates in the cover-up of Grace's Greenhouse. She goes to London trying to find a dealer to buy their huge haul of hemp. Soon she's on the run from a pair of thugs in addition to being hunted by mortgage bankers, insurance adjusters and police.
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