Letter to Crispian Strachan

From the Desk of:-
Mrs. Patricia Tabram
15, East Lea, Humshaugh. Northumberland N.E.46 4BU
Telephone: - 01434 681 803
e-mail:- pat @ cannabisgran.co.uk


8th February, 2005

To :-
Chief Constable Crispian Strachan,
Northumbria Police Headquarters,
North Road,
Ponteland.
Northumberland NE20 OBL

Dear Mr Strachan,

I am the "Grandma who Eats Cannabis", and feel it is only polite to write to you personally, regarding the problem of all the thousands and thousands of elderly people in the country who are medicating with Cannabis because of the shocking imperfection of the NHS medication provided to us, which the government seems to ignore.

By the time you are reading this letter, you will also be aware that I have written a letter to the Prime Minister, which I am hand delivering on Wednesday the 9th February, and will then understand why it is that I medicate with Cannabis, rather than risk using NHS medication.

Forgive me, for getting personal, but if you are married, and have children or grandchildren, plus brothers and sisters, parents and other relatives, besides friends, then you also, just like the rest of us, must be worried about the effect of NHS medication on everyone’s health, and I will be so bold as to say to you what I have just said to Mr Blair, - would you like to think that any sons, grandsons, brothers or male friends could become impotent as a result of NHS medication?

If, as I suspect, the answers is "No" - then you may understand why, as a direct result of my speaking to the media, I have discovered there are 3 groups of people - one in the North with over 600 members,, plus the group I have organised, which was a group of 5 sick, elderly people who were medicating with fresh Cannabis in their food, but which has risen to 138 within the last 2 weeks, plus a group of over 2,000 elderly and disabled people, organised in the midlands, who all ingest Cannabis, as a means of pain relief.

No doubt there are other groups, who will come forward, as a result of my recent venture, and I would add, that most of them buy the Cannabis direct from growers, who are growing it in this country. This makes me visualise the "coming out" of the elderly, in a bid to stop all this nonsense about cannabis, which is a herb, being referred to as a drug.

I am aware, that this is not your problem, and that you have nothing to do with all the millions of people in this country who are suffering from as many as 12 health problems, and taking up to 36 tablets per day, as a direct result of the infamously bad quality of standard medication given to them, as a direct result of the lack of "Duty of Care", for which Tony Blair is responsible.

The reason I am writing to you, is to ask you to inform the Police in the Northumberland area, about all legislation that has been passed regarding Cannabis and the disabled and sick. I enclose a copy of a House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology, Second Report, 2001, because in my little group, it is only one of the M.S. sufferers who is under 66, and the other three are all older than me, and even with all the appeals from people around the country, asking me to help them as well, I am still the youngest pensioner, - What would you do? Just ignore their appeals for help, when you know how simple it is for them to be pain free.

You see, three weeks ago, I went to a public event, which was advertised in the Hexham Courant, encouraging the public to visit the Community centre, and talk to the police, in order to improve understanding between the two parties, to improve Police and Public relationships. However, I wish I had not gone, because the Male and female officers, (Particularly the female officer) were not at all knowledgeable about the do’s and don’ts of medicinal Cannabis, and insisted, I was a criminal.

I myself, do hours of research every week on Cannabis and other subjects, and I believe, the reason the police do not get the respect they should is because of their attitude within the County of Northumberland. Last week I discovered that the Northumberland Police had, during 2004, convicted more than 2,200 people in Northumberland with possession of Cannabis, which then left them with a conviction against their name. One of which, was reported in the Hexham Courant in December 2004 - they had arrested and convicted a young woman in possession of 2 gram’s. I couldn’t believe what I was reading - yet, Cleveland area and all other counties in the country, averaged up to 300 convictions per year.

The following week I read that Northumberland police had also convicted a young woman for eating an apple whilst driving, and the whole nation, plus, many eminent Journalists, laughed about Northumberland Police on Television, the radio, and in the newspapers.
On the 24th January, I was in the Crown Court in Newcastle, regarding my case "The Grandma who Eats Cannabis", when I was approached by a Journalist who wanted to know my story, and within 24 hours, I was in every part of the media, even to the New York Times in America, and in every country in Europe, plus Australia etc., - but interestingly enough, on that same day, I had an enormous Sky TV Van, plus BBC Van, plus ITN van, outside my house by midday, when a local police car came into the street, he went down to the bottom of the street, and knocked at the door of a family of five, asking about all the media attention in the street etc., but also, asking the couple to please help him, because the police, when they raided my house for Cannabis noted that I had a couple of sheets of paper, saying I had been fined for going through the speed camera in Acomb, so they duly made a note of this and within weeks, I was taken to court and lost my licence for six months. Anyhow, he asked them to be honest with him, and tell him if they had ever seen me driving my car, after I had lost my licence, just to help the police, because they said they knew I had been driving my car around, and would they please assist him in his enquiries. To which the gentleman replied, that one morning in November, he had seen a big sort of lorry or van, at my door, at about seven o’clock in the morning, when a man, put the car in it, - I believe it was going for its MOT because it wouldn’t start - however, the old lady told us it had been scrapped, and so she had bought a new one, but was having it stored in Corbridge with a friend, because of all the police harassment she had gone through since last August. As a matter of fact, this same person, was told, by an officer from Corbridge, that the officer would be harassing him, when he got his licence back as well.

The policeman then left, shrugging his shoulders. You see, if we can go back to the beginning of the last paragraph I can explain, that at the court hearing on the 24th January 2005, the Barrister for the Police, told the judge that the police had decided they would now be happy to accept my original statement, and would not therefore deem it arguable. The judge, was not very pleased - I had been to the Magistrates in Hexham, twice already for this offence, and this was my second appearance at the Crown Court, and suddenly as the judge said, you have finally ended your intelligence, after I had gone through four appearances in the court, and he appeared quite angry, at the Northumberland Police.

I Think the reason was, that twice, on the interrogation tapes, of which there were 3, a police officer had stated that he knew I had had a nine bar, which is 9 ounces, and yet, on the two appearances at Tynedale Magistrates Court, the magistrates had stated there was just over 8 ounces, and we were going to bring this up in court, but we never got the chance. I am extremely angry with the standard of policing in our part of Northumberland because not only are half of the officers unpleasant, acting like Junior school bullies, attacking infant school children, but I feel they are also dishonest, and I can prove on my statements to the police that I had ordered 9 ounces, and paid around £1,000 for the Cannabis, but in the magistrates court was told there was just over 8 ounces at a value of approx., £850. When in fact if it was what I had originally bought the street value would have been around at least £1,500.

So, someone, who collected the fresh Cannabis, has not handed it all over at the police station. You can check all this from the magistrates notes, and from the tapes of my interrogation. You see, I brought it home with me at nearly midnight, the night before the police came and raided my house. I find it disgusting - the thought that a policeman had stolen it..

I do have in my possession, two chapters of my book entitled, "The first raid by the police" and "The second raid by the police", and part of the second chapter, was also going to be used as evidence.

I realise, you cannot be held responsible for the actions of the men in your force, but they need educating (an officer on the first raid, wrote down Siccors for the word scissors, - when he made out a list of what he had taken from my house, plus, his search warrant said, Remove all Cannabis, but said nothing about "Paraphenalia", yet he removed my diaries, my scissors, and lots of magazines and books from my home, (which I had legally bought in a shop in Newcastle) therefore not sticking to what was written on the search warrant, and the officers at the second raid, were not of the quality of the officers who did the first raid. They actually, took more than the nine bar, they also took a jar of approximately another ¾ of an ounce, which was in a glass container in the fridge, and which was ground up for using in the cooking, but they refused to take the 31 containers of food in the freezer and kitchen cupboard, in order to prove I used it for medicating via my food intake.

When I asked them, four times altogether, to please take the containers to prove why I had it - they said it wasn’t up to them to prove I used it in my food, as far as they were concerned, I was guilty of possession with intent to supply.

The crazy thing is that there has been a cocaine dealer and addict in our street for more than a year, and many people had complained about him, his name was Terry Woods, but right until early winter they had still not done anything about it - and during a dreadful incident in this street, in front of four lots of neighbours, when we once again threatened him with the police, he just laughed, and said he was a police informer, and got paid by the police, when they had successfully prosecuted someone, therefore, that was why they left him alone.

All of this, in great detail is in my forthcoming book, which is now safely in the hands of the publishers. But it is not a reflection on you personally, you did not do any of this, neither did the first group of officers, but I feel you should know, because the Northumberland police are not doing anything good for the reputation of the Northumbria Police. Of course, everyone appreciates that there are rogue elements in every profession, M.P’s, Doctors, Teachers and Policemen, (although I have never ever heard of rogue firemen - which is most refreshing), but I never expected to be a victim of rogue policemen

Once again, I must reiterate, that although at the age of 66years, I have never been in this situation before, my initial instinct, after I had been arrested, was to put everything that happened to me, down on paper, because it was obvious I would need it for a Solicitor. You will be extremely shocked at the way they treated me after putting me in a cell, for about 3 hours. It was inhuman, and broke all the rules which were laid out on the statement they handed me as I was put in the cell, but they made a mistake, they thought, oh! She is only an old woman, and cannot do anything about it. Big mistake, to underestimate the elderly.

I have written nothing but the truth, plus my observations, that the quality of policing in the Hexham area, is indeed not very good, and there are lots of different kinds of tablets being sold in and around Hexham, for drug addicts, but the only cases you ever see in the Hexham Courant every week, are cases of catching people for e.g., the young lady with 2 grams of Cannabis in her possession. But last week, for the first time in over a year, there was no record of any Cannabis cases.

Coupled with the case of the young lady convicted of driving whilst eating an apple, it is making rather a fool out of the name of the Northumbria Police. Who have never been able to catch a Heroin or Cocaine dealer, at least there have been no reports of this, during the last year.

I have been informed that my book will be a great success world-wide, because I have had my case reported in the New York Times, and received lots of comments from the public in America, plus Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Holland etc., but it will not add to the credibility of the Northumberland Police, because I have not told you of the list of all the harassment my son and I have received, plus some of the villagers in the local pub, from your famous plain clothes police officers, asking "Where does the old lady live who sells the Cannabis", whilst they were pretending to be about to come and live in Humshaugh, but even the old and drunk, knew there was no such person, because I have never ever sold Cannabis to anyone, and they all knew that - they all knew I ate it to keep pain free, just as some of the people in the pub did, whilst they were being chatted up over a period of 2/3 weeks, whilst the CID tried to discredit my good name.

The point is, that the police stick out like sore thumbs and have no ability to be discreet, but I would hate for them to be about to do this to some of the people, for whom I cook Cannabis food, for e.g., One of the old people I help is an old lady of 83 years of age, who is now completely pain free, through cooking with Cannabis.

The different incidents I have informed you about, are only half of what happened, the incessant harassment, was a nightmare, but something has to be done, or it will eventually make a laughing stock of the whole of the Northumbria Police Force.

I would love to know, where the Cannabis went, and which officer took it, and who is responsible for seeing it destroyed, or do they just share it between them and take it home. Plus, I would like to know the extent of their training in how to terrorize an old person like myself, and if it is Northumbria Police Policy to do this?

If you wish to see the two chapters, as long as it is discreet, with only yourself, then I will be willing to let you read a copy of each, on my computer, but I will not be able to let you have it until after the case is concluded on 11th March. After which, both the letter to Mr Blair and yourself, will be put in the book, plus, any results which I do or do not get.

I am so sorry I had to write to you, but in my mind, I have always been proud to say I lived in Northumbria, but I am afraid, it is no longer the case. The police in this area, and in Newcastle are making us the laughing stock of the country, and all the countries who have read the report about my case.

Yours sincerely,




p.s. I also enclose a copy of the letter to Mr Blair. As you will see, I have never been a criminal before, I am simply a typical northerner who speaks her mind, and who does not fear reprisals from anyone. I will, continue to medicate with Cannabis until British medication, which one receives from G,P, Surgeries and Hospitals is more safe, but it has become seriously dangerous over the last 20 years, each medication having between 6 - 79 side effects, and of which, the majority causes depression, asthma, Tinnitus facial rashes, besides heart disease and kidney failure as examples. But you can read all about it in the other report I enclose, that of the letter to Mr Blair.

One other enclosure, is a copy of a House of Lords Select Committee report on the use of Medicinal Cannabis.

As I said to Tony Blair, I will not stop using Cannabis in my food, until NHS Medication is acceptable, if you feel you want me arrested every week, all I can say is, go ahead, but just as Emily Pankhurst, went to prison a few times before she succeeded in getting the vote for women, I am quite prepared to do exactly the same until this lethal medication we are all given, is safe for every man, woman and child in the country.

You must understand, that ordinary citizens find it very difficult to get justice, which is why I am arranging for both these letters to be published in the media, after 11th March. Because what has happened to me - could happen to them. Also, in court, the judge stated he had a reference to my being guilty of Four cases of Tampering, and he asked the police Barrister, what a case of Tampering was, the Barrister did not know, neither did the judge or my Barrister - something is wrong in Hexham.