GRAN TAKES A POT SHOT AT MINISTER

 

Source: Thisissouthwales.co.uk / South Wales Evening Post

Pub date: April 18, 2005

Subj: Gran takes pot shot at Minister

Author: Brian Walters, Political Editor

Web: http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/

 

A 66-year-old granny who admits cooking cannabis cakes, soup and casseroles for neighbours and friends has launched her campaign to become the next MP for Neath. Pat Tabram is realistic enough to know she is not going to unseat Welsh Secretary Peter Hain.

But she says her main aim over the next two-and-a-half weeks is to raise awareness of the "benefits" of cannabis to people and their environment.

Widowed Mrs Tabram, who lives in Northumberland, is the unlikely Neath candidate for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, a registered political party.

Police recently raided her home in East Lea and found 31 cannabis plants and wraps of the drug ready for distribution.

But in Newcastle Crown Court Judge David Hodson suspended a six-month jail sentence, saying he had "no intention of making a martyr of her".

So she is free to hit the campaign trail in Neath where she hopes to win many converts to her cause between now and May 5.

In an interview with the Post, she said she wanted to hasten the full legalisation of the cannabis plant for the good of people worldwide.

She also wants to encourage public and private research into what she believes are the many beneficial uses of cannabis, including industrial, social and medical uses.

"I would also like to see a cannabis amnesty in the same way as we had an arms amnesty a few years ago," she said.

"People could come forward and admit to using cannabis, assured that they wouldn't be arrested."

Mrs Tabram's only link with South Wales is that her late husband David was from Swansea, but she has not been back here for 18 years.

Some years ago she suffered severe depression following the death of her 14-year-old son and later her husband. She also nursed her mother until she died.

Mrs Tabram was placed on medication for depression.

She then started to develop arthritis in her knees, and was placed on another kind of medication for that.

"I developed, from the combination of medication, a lumpy red rash around my face," she recalled.

"I lost the hair from the top of my head and had very bad bruising on my arms and legs.

"When you get up close to my face, I look like an ugly old fossil," she added.

A distressed Mrs Tabram thought about killing herself, then a neighbour sought out a cannabis cigarette to calm her down.

Although she didn't enjoy smoking or being high, she did note that it improved her sleep, lifted the fug of her depression and significantly reduced her physical pain.

She asked her friend whether there was any other way of taking it and was told that she might try cooking with it.

Soon afterwards she found two cannabis recipe books in a shop in Newcastle.

She added: "I have been cooking with it ever since.

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