POTTERING about her kitchen with her grey hair and spectacles, grandmother Patricia Tabram cuts an unlikely figure as a drug dealer.

But the sprightly 66-year-old, who prides herself on her home-made herbal cookies, casseroles and soups, has admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply from her home in East Lea, in Humshaugh, near Hexham, Northumberland.

She has cooked up treats laced with the drug for neighbours and friends after being introduced to it last year.

A defiant Mrs Tabram said yesterday: "Friends introduced me to cannabis last February when they gave me a cigarette.

"I suffer from depression, whiplash in my neck and back pain. I went to bed and the next morning and I felt so much better.

"I didn't know what I had taken so I asked my friends. They said it was cannabis.

"But I don't like smoking so they said I could cook with it."

The grandmother-of-two began cooking regularly for friends with food laced with the illegal herb.

But Northumbria Police were tipped off about the savoury smells and activities coming from Mrs Tabram's bungalow and twice raided her house.

They seized 31 cannabis plants growing in her loft and another one from her hallway table, which officers had missed until Mrs Tabram pointed it out.

"When the police came to my door I invited them in," she said.

"They said I had been growing cannabis plants in my shed. They went to look for them but didn't find anything.

"I told them to look in the loft and I offered them some tea and biscuits."

The teetotal grandmother added: "From the way the police were talking, you would think I was the biggest criminal in Hexham."

Mrs Tabram has written a book called Grandma Eats Cannabis and hopes to have it published.

She said she had been travelling to the Byker district of Newcastle regularly to buy the drug. But she took her quest for medicinal hash further and became involved with a drug dealer in Hexham.

Mrs Tabram appeared at Newcastle Crown Court on Monday expecting to be sentenced after admitting, on December 13, one charge of possession of a Class C drug with intent to supply.

However, the proceedings were adjourned to allow for the preparation of reports and she was remanded on bail until March 11.