Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:


After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.

MS cannabis campaigner raided

BBC Online

Thursday 16 Aug 2001

Biz Ivol, who campaigns for cannabis to legalised for medicinal use, has
had her home raided by police.

The Orkney Islander said four officers from Kirkwall Police searched her
house last Monday, and took away her cannabis plants, address book and
computer.

"They were here for more than two hours, going through the house with a
fine-tooth comb, but they haven't charged me with anything yet," she told
BBC News Online.

Police confirmed that the house was searched, and their inquiries are
continuing.

Ms Ivol, 53, uses cannabis to relieve the shakes and pains of multiple
sclerosis and sends the surplus free-of-charge to other sufferers around
the country.

Not only did the police quiz her about who took her parcels to the post
office, she says they also questioned the local post mistress.

'Not a criminal'

In December 1997, Ms Ivol was admonished in Kirkwall Sheriff Court after
admitting growing 27 cannabis plants.

Ms Ivol says she is not a criminal. "What makes me cross is that people say
it's my own fault for selling drugs. But I've never made a cent from what
I'm doing."

Each time she hits the headlines, anonymous supporters from as far away as
Ireland and Switzerland send her packages of cannabis seeds through the post.

She grows the plants in her home and, until recently, made cannabis-laced
chocolates to send to other sufferers. But demand has grown so rapidly she
has handed production over to fellow campaigners Mark and Lezley Gibson in
Cumbria.

Ms Ivol, who was diagnosed with MS in 1990, spoke to BBC News Online in May
about her fight to get cannabis legalised for medicinal use.

She said then that nothing alleviates the symptoms as effectively as cannabis.

"When I stop taking it, the difference is frightening. I've got
uncontrollable muscle spasms - my hand starts banging off the table, my
legs fly up into the air - my eyesight goes and I feel ill.

"And I can't tell when I need to go to the toilet without cannabis. I'm
utterly and completely incontinent."

Earlier this year Canada became the first country to issue permits for the
medical use of marijuana, but a ban remained on recreational use.

In October a House of Commons committee is due to start an investigation of
possible decriminalisation of cannabis.


 

 

 

After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.




This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!