PERSONAL COLUMN - PAIN RELIEF

Patricia Tabram, 68, Had Her First Joint Three Years Ago, She Was So
Taken With The Drug, She Started Cooking Meals With It For Friends

For the past three years I've been cooking wonderful meals with
cannabis. I cook just for myself now, but for a while I was part of a
pensioners' cannabis cookery group. I grow it at home and have been
raided three times. I believe in it so strongly that I'm prepared to
go to prison, even at 68. After years of living with pain, I'm now
well . I no longer have to wear a neck brace or use a walking stick.

In 1975, I found my son dead in bed. He was 14. I went into shock and
the doctor put me on Valium. I attempted suicide and spent three
months in a mental hospital. My marriage broke up, and I had to nurse
my dying mother, father, grandmother and second husband. I was given
ever stronger sleeping tablets and antidepressants and developed a
range of illnesses. I had tinnitus, a rash, and so much bruising that
I thought I had Alzheimer's and was falling without realizing it. I
was also bleeding from the kidneys and bowels.

It wasn't until 2003 that I read about the side effects of the drugs I
was taking. I decided to come off them and went into depression.

One day, a friend, shocked at the state I was in, gave me a roll-up.
Afterwards I slept for more than 12 hours. I hadn't slept naturally
for 25 years; it was unbelievable. When I woke up I felt great and the
spinal pain caused by an accident had gone.

I didn't like smoking it as it hurt my throat. My friend said that I
could cook with it and told me about a dealer in a pub in Newcastle. I
ground it down into a powder and put some into eggs. Within five
minutes my head started to swim, I vomited and passed out. I'd taken
too much. I tried again with a smaller amount, adding some chilli oil.
It was delicious. I started experimenting with recipes, and put it
into my hot chocolate before bed. After a week I was permanently pain
free. I felt great and every day I was buzzing to get up.

A lady I'd known for many years said I looked great and that before
she thought I was at death's door. She wanted to know where my stick
and neck brace were. I said that I didn't need them any more as I was
on a new medication and told her what it was. She phoned up a couple
of days later and asked if she could bring a couple of friends round.
Within three months there were five of us pensioners in a cannabis
cookery club. We'd cook chicken and meat pie, lemon and lime cheese
cake, casseroles, steak and kidney pies. We also played Scrabble and
knitted. They flushed away their medicine.

We decided to grow it ourselves and each put 200 UKP into a kitty for
equipment. I started 31 plants off in the garden hut and then moved
them up into the loft.

They were about 3ft and doing very well when there was a knock at the
door. I knew it was the drug squad. Someone had tipped them off. I
invited them in, admitted I was growing cannabis and offered them tea
and coffee, and biscuits with it in, but they refused.

I was charged with cultivation and possession with intent to supply
and put in a cell for five hours. After being interrogated three times
for 45 minutes I was given a caution and taken home. Four months later
I was raided again. I had 9oz of cannabis which I was putting in
little bags for the ladies. I'd bought it the night before. I was
fined 750 UKP and given a six-month prison sentence suspended for two
years. I decided to grow the herb just for myself after that. I stood
at the general election for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance and got
about 1,000 votes. I have also started a cookery book, Grandma Eats
Cannabis.

Five months after the trial, I was raided again. My case comes up in
March. I'm going to represent myself: I want to tell the jury why I
medicate with it. I only eat it five times every other day now. After
nearly three years I need less. I'm pain free. The only victims in the
cannabis issue are the elderly, the disabled and the sick.

Interview by Julia Stuart. Patricia is in 'Stoned in Suburbia', on Sky
One at 1am on Saturday.