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Hash suicide bid

Bob Dow

Daily Record, Glasgow

Wednesday 02 Jul 2003

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MS sufferer in death vow taken to hospital after trial collapses

THE cannabis campaigner who vowed to kill herself was rushed to hospital
after a suspected overdose yesterday.

Multiple sclerosis sufferer Biz Ivol had made the suicide threat as a final
protest in her fight to have the drug legalised.

On Monday, the case against her alleging the possession of cannabis was
dropped.

She was taken by ambulance to Orkney's Balfour Hospital just after 9am
yesterday.

It is thought she may have taken an overdose of paracetamol tablets. Her
condition last night was said to be stable.

Campaigners had travelled to Orkney to support Ivol.

They camped in her garden in South Ronaldsay and watched as ambulance staff
raced into the house.

Clara O'Donnell, of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, said: "A neighbour had
gone to check on her and I think found her lying unconscious.

"The next thing we knew, she had been taken away by an ambulance."

The criminal case against the 55-year-old at Kirkwall Sheriff Court was
dropped after hearing she was no longer fit to stand trial.

She had denied charges of possessing, supplying and cultivating cannabis.

Although pleading not guilty, Ivol admitted earlier in the trial to having
the drug to make cannabis chocolates for other MS sufferers.

Cornish-born Ivol claimed the drug was the only way she could bear the pain
of her crippling condition.

She had pledged to take her own life, whatever the outcome of the case, as
she was fed up with her long running fight against the illness.

In court, procurator fiscal Sue Foard accepted a report from Ivol's GP that
she was unfit for any further court hearings.

Sheriff Colin Scott Mackenzie told the court: "Given the publicity that
this has attracted, I have to say that any question of legalisation or
decriminalisation of cannabis is a matter for politicians and not for the
courts."


 

 

 

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