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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Cannabis woman tries to kill herself
Stephen Stewart The Herald, Glasgow
Wednesday 02 Jul 2003 A MULTIPLE sclerosis sufferer, who highlighted the medicinal uses of cannabis during a controversial court case, was taken to hospital yesterday after a suspected suicide attempt. Elizabeth Ivol, known as Biz Ivol, from the Orkney island of South Ronaldsay, had threatened to take her own life after the trial. An ambulance was called to the 55-year-old's home yesterday morning, hours before prosecutors confirmed they had dropped the charges of distributing, possessing and producing can-nabis on medical grounds against Miss Ivol. She has fought to make cannabis available to people suffering from MS and other debilitating diseases, and, speaking to The Herald on Tuesday night before her suspected drug overdose, Miss Ivol said: "I have got it (suicide) all planned. In many ways, I wish my brain had went first because of the MS and I wouldn't be so aware of what was going on. "I am fed up with going on like this. I have looked into it and have decided to take paracetamol because, if you take enough, it just destroys your internal organs. "I want to do it soon and I have to be very careful that no-one is around, so they don't face prosecution for helping me." Last night, Miss Ivol was in a stable condition in Balfour Hospital, Kirkwall. Supporters of Miss Ivol, who camped out in her front garden to try to convince her not to take her own life, said they saw her being stretchered unconscious into the ambulance. Miss Ivol, whose condition has left her paralysed, had already made arrangements for her funeral on the island. Clara O'Donnell, a spokes-woman for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance (LCA), was one of those who had travelled to Orkney. "We arrived after 1am in the morning and decided to set up a tent in Biz's front garden," she said. "The next thing we knew, we had woken up this morning and a neighbour had gone to check on her and I think found her lying unconscious." During her trial, Miss Ivol was charged with handling the class B drug after she developed cannabis chocolate for herself and fellow sufferers. She had denied the three charges against her, even though she admitted in court that she had possessed, produced and distributed the drug. She said she began taking cannabis to numb the pain of MS, which she described as like having "barbed wire going through my spine". For two years, she resisted using cannabis because of the stigma attached to the drug, and tried legal drugs supplied by her doctor, some of which had "horrific" side effects. Eventually, she said she gave in and began smoking one cannabis joint each evening. "It was either cannabis or nothing. I tried everything else and nothing worked," she told the court. She agreed to help a non-smoking MS sufferer and developed her "special Belgian chocolates", laced with the drug, and cannabis patches which could be applied to the skin. She said: "This is not a cry for help and there is nothing anybody can do. I do not have any quality of life. I have muscle spasms and my eyesight's failing. It is very, very painful. I'm completely and utterly paralysed from the neck down, more or less." <../../leader/archive/3-7-19103-0-3-2.htm>Editorial comment - July 3rd
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