[Sativa]

A Northumberland grandmother threatened with eviction over her use of cannabis, has won support from an MP.

Chairman of the all-party drugs misuse group, Dr Brian Iddon, said Patricia Tabram's landlords should back off.

Mrs Tabram, 68, was sentenced on 7 March to 250 hours of community service after being found guilty of possessing and cultivating cannabis.

Her housing association has said she will be evicted if she continues to use the drug, which she says is medicinal.

The grandmother has said she will live in a tent rather than give it up.

Possession order

Dr Iddon, Labour MP for Bolton South East, said he supported her campaign for people who found little or no pain relief from conventional medication to be able to use cannabis legally.

He said: "Ironically they get quite a lot, if not total pain relief from taking certain species of cannabis in biscuits and cakes.

"I don't think we should be locking older people up or housing associations evicting them for relieving pain."

Dr Brian Iddon
Dr Iddon wants cannabis to be legal for medical purposes

On Wednesday, Milecastle Housing, the association with which she is a tenant, said it would apply to the court for a possession order, suspended for up to two years.

If granted, the association will only allow her to continue living at the property as long as she does not cultivate, possess or use cannabis there.

Mrs Tabram, who claims she uses the drug to relieve neck pain caused by two car crashes, was arrested in 2005 when police raided her bungalow at Humshaugh near Hexham.

She was in breach of a six-month suspended jail sentence when the officers, acting on a tip-off, found the plants and growing equipment in a walk-in wardrobe.

She was given a 250-hour community service order at Carlisle Crown Court.



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