POT-GROWING GRAN WILL NOT LOSE HER HOUSE

A GREAT-grandmother who feared she'd lose her home after being
convicted of growing cannabis at the property and selling it, is to
keep her house.

Dawn Danby, 72, finished one-year home detention stint at her Paeroa
hillside house earlier this month. A restraining order had been put on
the property under the Proceeds of Crime Act following a police raid
there in February 2007.

During that bust, police found 12 cannabis plants growing in pots
behind her home, 11 cannabis clones being grown under lights inside
her house and five further cannabis seedlings in her garden.

Almost two ounces were divided between several containers inside the
well-kept property along with $9000 cash.

In April last year, Danby was sentenced at Tauranga District Court to
a year's home detention and 300 hours community work for growing,
selling and possessing cannabis between October 2006 and February 2007.

Last week, Danby told Sunday News she didn't know if she would still
lose her home but didn't want to comment further.

Inquiries by Sunday News have revealed the time in which the Crown has
to start court action to seize the property has lapsed. They have six
months to do so after an offender is convicted.

Before being sentenced, Danby told this paper - in an exclusive
interview - she had only used cannabis for pain relief, was not a drug
dealer and only grew cannabis to meet her own demands.

"You take cannabis and it works within 15 seconds if inhaled," said
Danby, who said she was riddled with pain after a failed pelvic floor
operation.

Danby said she didn't get stoned on the drug.

"When you're in pain, the THC and all the other compounds act on that
pain so you don't get that heavy stoned effect."