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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Judge sentences cannabis chocolate dealers
Russell Jenkins The Times
Saturday 27 Jan 2007 Three campaigners who supplied chocolate that was laced with cannabis to help to ease the pain of MS sufferers were given suspended jail sentences yesterday. Lezley Gibson, 42, a multiple sclerosis sufferer, her husband Mark, 42, and associate Marcus Davies, 36, were found guilty of conspiring to supply the drug last month. The couple, who run a gift shop in Alston, a village in the North Pennines, had argued that they were operating a not-for-profit service. The jury at Carlisle Crown Court rejected their contention that they had a defence in law because the drug was being used for medicinal purposes. Judge John Phillips accepted that their motives were altruistic and had been prompted by a genuine desire to help people. Each of the three received a nine-month jail sentence, suspended for two years. Judge Phillips agreed with the defence that there were exceptional circumstances, but he could not agree that a conditional discharge was an appropriate punishment. He said: “The conspiracy to supply drugs took place over a number of years in what was a sophisticated operation.” After the hearing Mrs Gibson, who said that she had been taking antidepressants because of the case, said: “I was devastated when we were found guilty and this decision has broken me again. I still do not think I have done anything wrong. How can it be wrong to try and help ill people? “The people who used our services are now forced to go to the street dealers and buy contaminated cannabis.” The couple, who ran the campaign group THC4MS (Therapeutic Help from Cannabis for Multiple Sclerosis), posted more than 36,000 bars of “Canna-Biz” to more than 1,800 MS sufferers. In each case they asked their clients for a note from a consultant, doctor or nurse confirming their diagnosis. Each was asked to make a donation, ranging from £1.50 to £5. They placed advertisements in the regional and national media. Cumbria Police were said to have been aware of the operation. Cash receipts totalling £30,000 were seized, but Mrs Gibson told officers that the money had been spent on production of the chocolate bars. Davies, of St Ives, Cambridge-shire, admitted running a web-site and post office box number but had denied any involvement in making or posting the chocolates. After the hearing, Claire Lindley, the Cumbria chief Crown prosecutor, said that the campaigners had not known the medical circumstances of those who received the drugs and that the enterprise had been commercial. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,200-2568732,00.html
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