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Orkney cannabis campaigner Biz Ivol freely admitted during her trial last week that she had used, grown and supplied cannabis - but denied she is guilty of any crime.

At a specially convened court in Kirkwall's Pickaquoy sports centre, the 55-year-old MS sufferer was asked by Orkney and Shetland fiscal Sue Foard why she had pled not guilty.

"I do not feel guilty for using a God given natural plant to help myself and to help other people in the same boat as me," she replied.

The wheel-chair bound woman, of Craigflower Cott, Herston, South Ronaldsay, claims the class B drug relieves symptoms of the disease, one of which she described in court as "feeling like someone is pulling barbed wire through my spine."

She added "My eyesight is failing and I have muscle spasms. If I am not in a wheelchair, I am in bed. I can make myself a cup of tea and answer the telephone. Normally by 1pm my fingers are paralysed."

On advice from Mrs Ivol's GP, Sherriff Colin Scott Mackenzie agreed that court sittings should be restricted to three hours and she should be allowed regular breaks throughout.

It is alleged that Mrs Ivol supplied cannabis to Mr John Murray, of 28 Dalgety Bay, Fife, between May and august 2001. She is further charged with possessing cannabis and growing two cannabis plants at her home on August 6, 2001.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, PC Mike Don told the court that Mrs Ivol said in her statement that she had sent cannabis chocolate to about 30 people.

PC Don (34), area drugs officer in Orkney, said that officers had searched Mrs Ivol's property on August 6 2001.

Several items were seized at the time, including an address book, letters, information pack, a tin containing rolled cigarettes, herbal material and cannabis seeds, two plants.

Mrs Ivol, who looked frail, was asked her age by her defence agent, Edinburgh based advocate Mr David Moggach.

She thought for a moment, gave him her date of birth and said, "you work it out".

Mrs Ivol claimed Mr Murray had inquired about cannabis chocolate for his wife Eileen, who also suffers from MS.

Giving evidence for the prosecution last Wednesday, Mr Murray (64) told the court he had been desperate to find something to help his wife.

He said she had been diagnosed eight or nine years ago and was now taking 18 tablets a day.

It was a newspaper article that alerted him to Biz Ivol, he said, and shortly afterwards he telephoned her.

"I took it upon myself to contact Biz Ivol and ask her if she could help my wife. As a result of reading the article, I was aware that Mrs Ivol had found a technique for combining cannabis with chocolate, and that cannabis is supposed to help MS sufferers."

He said he knew how to get "street cannabis" but did not want to go down that route as you could not be sure what was contained within it.

"I asked if she could, whenever would be convenient, possibly supply a little chocolate for my wife - if I could persuade her to use it and it got to the stage where it was necessary."

He told the court he received a package containing cannabis chocolate about 10 to 14 days later.

Mr Murray said he could not persuade the accused to take payment for the chocolates.

About 2 to 4 months later police officers arrived at the house and found the chocolates, which he had kept unused in the fridge, as he had not been able to persuade his wife to try one. The fiscal asked him if he was concerned about the amount of cannabis in the chocolates.

"What about if you had given her half a chocolate and there had been no improvement?" the fiscal asked.

"I would have certainly have given her the other half at the time " he replied.

Mrs Ivol told the court she was diagnosed with MS more than 10 years ago and had since tried all available prescription medication, steroids, anti-depressants, sleeping tablets, none of which worked, she claims.

"I sat in a chair like a zombie, staring out of the window in another world," she said.

Mrs Ivol claimed to have "thought very seriously for a couple of years before starting to use cannabis because it is against the law and because of the stigma surrounding it."

"My doctor told me to use real cannabis and I asked him where to get it from. He told me to grow it myself," she said.

Asked by Mr Moggach why she decided to try cannabis, she replied: "To try and get some relief. It was either cannabis or nothing. It relaxes all my muscles and relieves the pain in my spine. It is also an appetite stimulant."

Mrs Ivol told the court that it was her GP many years ago who told her there was someone else in the area suffering from MS and asked her if she would share her cannabis.

"He did not smoke so we had to find another way of getting it into his system- that is how the cannabis chocolates came to be. Research shows that cannabis gets stronger if mixed with animal fat. We also devised cannabis patches which absorb it into the skin."

She used a teaspoon of cannabis powder in half a pound of chocolate, the court heard. Mrs Ivol denied ever approaching people and offering them cannabis.

"I have never encouraged anybody to use cannabis. Most of the people who approach me are middle age women. It takes a lot of thinking about whether you should break the law or not."

It was the media attention that surrounded Mrs Ivol's campaign for the legalisation of cannabis that led her to receive hundreds of requests for help, the court heard.

Mrs Ivol admitted putting together an information pack about cannabis and MS, with the help of an unnamed person, and she had sent out hundreds to fellow sufferers.

"I received 217 phone calls in one day" she said.

Mr Moggach asked how she knew whether people were genuine sufferers.

"I have had people trying it on. When you are talking about MS, you ask them what is wrong with them. You can see through them. Usually I tell them to go to their doctor and get a sick note."

However, the fiscal asked her how she could screen people who telephoned or wrote to her.

"You told Mr Moggach in your view you screened people. For the most part people telephoned you. During the course of these telephone conversations you screened them, deciding if they who was genuine and not genuine? Would you accept you might have been fooled?" the fiscal said.

"No, I don't think I was" Mrs Ivol replied. "There is something about when you speak to other people with MS you know straight away they are not lying about anything."

"But sometimes people are phoning on behalf of other people who are suffering from MS," the fiscal continued. "When you spoke to Mr Murray he described his wife's symptoms to you and did not send a medical note."

Mrs Ivol was asked if she supplied anyone with cannabis chocolates on the basis of e-mail or letter.

"E-mails, no," she said. "with the letters I sent them off the information sheet first so they could supply themselves."

However, Mrs Foard highlighted two letters that had been found in Mrs Ivol's house by the police. The fiscal said they were both from the same man, the first requesting some cannabis chocolates after reading a national newspaper article, and the second a reply saying thank you for the letter and the package.

Mrs Foard said "It is accepted by the Crown that you were not involved in making any money. On the strength of a letter with no more information than being an "MS sufferer myself", on the strength of a letter written by a stranger with no more information, you sent out a package. Where was your screening process here? You had no proper screening mechanism in place- is that correct?"

"Why do you need a screening process. I was quite satisfied with the people that contacted me, that they were MS sufferers," Mrs Ivol said.

The fiscal claimed that Mrs Ivol could not know the strength of the cannabis within the chocolate being supplied.

"Why not?" Mrs Ivol said. "It cannot hurt you. Even the strongest cannabis cannot kill people. I knew they would not be strong by the amount of cannabis I was putting in them. It works out quite expensive and I couldn't afford to supply a lot of people with cannabis."

Mrs Foard then turned her attention to the possible side effects of cannabis.

"You believe the feeling of being slightly tipsy is the worst side effect of cannabis?" she asked.

"Yes" Mrs Ivol replied. "There has been some research into people that have used it for a long time and apparently some of these people can get a bit paranoid but it can take 20 years to get those symptoms"

And the accused admitted not using the drug through the day for fear of getting "giggly, stupid, and talking rubbish".

The trial was adjourned until July 2.

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