Pubdate: Wed, 21 Sep 2005
Source: Mirror, The (UK)
Copyright: 2005 The Mirror
Contact:  http://www.mirror.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1161
Author: Sue Carroll
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

POLICE MAKE A HASH OF DRUGS CRACKDOWN

UP IN Northumberland, my neck of the woods, the story of 
cannabis-growing gran Patricia Tabram has popped up again.

This, in case you'd forgotten, is the pensioner who says she takes 
the drug to alleviate the painful symptoms of tinnitus, whiplash and 
depression.

St. Patricia even doles her home-grown dope out to other ailing 
mates. Often she'll sprinkle it into soup or a stew. Her skunk scones 
are legendary.

Many's the night the elderly of Humshaugh, a sleepy little village 
near Hexham, giggle their way to bed after sampling a slice of Mrs 
Tabram's fruit cake. So brisk was her trade that by January this 
year, police discovered she was in possession of UKP 845 worth of the 
drug. (Roughly the financial equivalent of what Kate Moss shoves up 
her nose in an afternoon.)

That the 66-year-old is a hardened addict now seems beyond doubt. 
Despite a six-month suspended jail sentence for possessing cannabis 
with intent to supply, she appears to have been at it again.

After a police raid Patricia was arrested this week on suspicion of 
cultivating the drug, and this time a stretch behind bars looks 
likely if convicted.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman