PUBLISHED
LETTER JULY 2003: A CHANCE TO SUPPORT A REAL SUFFERER
Source: Evening News,
Norwich, UK
Pub Date: Thursday, 10
July 2003
Pub LTE: A Chance to
Support a Real Sufferer
Author: Alun Buffry,
Legalise Cannabis Alliance
Web:
http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk
Contact: EveningNewsLetters@archant.co.uk
Ref: LCA Petition http://www.lca-uk.org/petition
Biz Ivol http://www.ccguide.org.uk/bizivol.php
A CHANCE TO SUPPRT A
REAL SUFFERER
I would like to take
this opportunity to thank Dr Ian Gibson MP, Norwich North, for his prompt
response in signing the petition voicing disapproval at the treatment of MS
sufferer Biz Ivol by the Scottish Justice system.
Mrs Ivol is in her fifties
and wheelchair bound, partially sighted and paralysed from Multiple Sclerosis.
Some years ago she tried cannabis to ease her symptoms, one of which she
describes as like "having barbed wire dragged up and down my spine."
She claims to have
experienced such relief that she decided to use cannabis to cook with, instead
of smoking it, eventually settling on her own recipe for cannabis chocolate.
She was so impressed with the results that she went to the press and was
reported in 2001.
Consequently, I am told,
she received requests for "canna-choc" from other MS sufferers in
Scotland, the UK and Europe, which she claims she posted free of any charge
whatsoever. Her honesty was once again reported nationally.
She was then raided by
Scottish Police. That was in August 2001 and she is now being taken to court,
in her wheelchair, after waiting almost 2 years. In that time she will have
suffered stress, as do most awaiting a trial, and her body had deteriorated
considerably so that she can no longer type or use the Internet to communicate.
The fact that she was
ever arrested in the first place, having harmed nobody, is bad and unjust, but
to make her wait so long for trial is an outrage. I am very pleased that Dr
Gibson has recognised that.
The same cannot be said
for Charles Clarke MP. No doubt he will use the reason that he disagrees with
legalisation of cannabis and that he is unable to sign because he is a
government minister.
Evening News readers can
show their support for this lady and their opposition to her prosecution by
signing the petition at http://www.lca-uk.org/petition
Alun Buffry
Legalise Cannabis
Alliance
Norwich