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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Pro-cannabis campaigner in suspected drug overdose
John Ross The Scotsman
Wednesday 02 Jul 2003 BIZ IVOL, the Orkney cannabis campaigner, was seriously ill in hospital=20 last night after a suspected overdose on the day charges against her for=20 supplying the drug were dropped. Mrs Ivol, 56, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is confined to a=20 wheelchair, was found unconscious in her home in South Ronaldsay about 9am= =20 yesterday. She was discovered by a neighbour, Bobby McCutcheon, who accompanied her to= =20 hospital in Kirkwall, where her condition is "stable". Cannabis campaigners who had travelled from the south of England to support= =20 Mrs Ivol in court were left stunned by the news. Some had camped overnight= =20 in her garden and had tried unsuccessfully to raise her yesterday morning. Mrs Ivol had said she would take her own life at the end of the case in=20 which she defended the use of cannabis for MS sufferers. In a radio interview yesterday morning, she said: "My final protest will be= =20 to overdose on paracetamol. I will get stoned first so I don=19t feel any=20 pain. Then I will take the paracetamol and go to sleep and it's all over=20 and done with. Someone else can carry on fighting after me. I am just= tired." Last night, her supporters attacked the decision to hold the court case,=20 estimated to cost about =A31,000. Mrs Ivol stood trial last month on charges of cultivating, possessing and=20 supplying cannabis, resulting from a police raid two years ago. The charges= =20 relate to the supply of cannabis-laced chocolates to fellow MS sufferers.=20 Others plan to continue producing the chocolates, with the name changed=20 from "canna-chocs" to "cannabiz", after Mrs Ivol. The court case had been continued until yesterday, but Mrs Ivol learned on= =20 Tuesday that it would not be proceeding. This was confirmed yesterday, when= =20 Sue Foard, the procurator fiscal, accepted a report from Mrs Ivol's GP that= =20 she was unfit for any further court appearance. The sheriff, Colin Scott=20 Mackenzie, told the court it was "an unsatisfactory ending to a sad case". He said the question of legalisation or decriminalisation of cannabis was a= =20 matter for the politicians and not for the courts. Last night, Alistair Carmichael, the MP for Orkney and Shetland, said: "A=20 lot of public money has been spent raising a prosecution against a woman=20 who is not well and now there is no determination at the end of it. "I cannot be too hard on the police or fiscal service because she was doing= =20 this so openly and it was possibly open to abuse. But the continuation to=20 the point it reached was a bad call. If she was too ill yesterday, then she= =20 was too ill when the case started." Don Barnard, a spokesman for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, said: "Why did= =20 they not stop this case two years ago? There was no reason for going ahead.= =20 It was immoral." The Crown Office said the decision was based purely on the medical evidence= =20 and not on Mrs Ivol's campaign to legalise cannabis.
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