A CANNABIS-COOKING grandmother is hoping to become an MP for a party campaigning to legalise the drug.

Patricia Tabram, 66, made headlines when £800 of cannabis and 31 cannabis plants were seized from her home after smells wafting from her kitchen attracted police.

Mrs Tabram will challenge Labour MP and House of Commons leader Peter Hain for his seat as a candidate for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance.

She said: "I was at the Legalise Cannabis Alliance conference last week in Norwich and they have asked me to be their candidate."

Mrs Tabram, who lives near Hexham, Northumberland, admitted possessing cannabis in January, and become famous for championing the drug for its medicinal benefits. She could be jailed when she is sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court next week.

She originally used cannabis as a natural remedy for tinnitus, mild depression and aches and pains caused by a car accident.

Rather than smoke it, she found she preferred it in soup, cakes and biscuits.

She said: "Whatever happens in court next week, I will not be giving cannabis up. The police will just have to keep coming round and taking my food away."

A Legalise Cannabis Alliance spokesman said: "We are supporting her as a candidate because we think it is important that people realise that cannabis is not all about the negative."

A spokesman for Mr Hain's office in the Welsh constituency of Neath, said: "People have the right to stand in a democratic election and I am sure that the good people of Neath, as always, will take into consideration who they want to represent them in Parliament.