Pubdate: Fri, 23 Sep 2005
Source: Evening Chronicle (UK)
Copyright: 2005 Trinity Mirror Plc
Contact:  http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/eveningchronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3668
Author: Jane Picken
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Patricia+Tabram
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

DECISION ON CANNABIS OAP IS DELAYED

Cannabis-loving gran Patricia Tabram will have to wait to find out
whether she will be made to appear in court again.

Mrs Tabram, 66, answered bail at Hexham police station yesterday and
emerged 90 minutes later after she was re-bailed.

She must wait another two months to hear if she will go before the
courts again for cultivating the drug.

The pensioner was arrested last week at her home in the quiet village
of Humshaugh, near Hexham.

Police recovered plants and they have now told her they need further
analysis.

Outside the police station, she said: "Anyone who knows anything about
cannabis knows it is cannabis, but they said they need proof.

"This just prolongs it, but it gives me more time to put my case
together."

In April the grandmother-of-two received a six-month jail sentence,
suspended for two years, after she admitted possessing cannabis with
intent to supply.

The judge warned her she faced jail if she committed the same offence
again.

"I didn't raid my house," she said.

"I think they are wanting to make an example of this little old
lady.

"But if they do, and they send me to prison, the public will ask 'Why
does this woman medicate with cannabis?'"

Mrs Tabram, who suffered from depression, claimed she used the illegal
drug as a mild painkiller, and that many synthetic medicines were
actually harmful to people.

She must return to Hexham police station on November 10.
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