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UK: Wallace backs MS victim on drugs charge

Carlos Alba

The Sunday Times

Sunday 21 Jul 2002

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A WOMAN facing prosecution for possessing and supplying cannabis has
claimed that she has the support of Jim Wallace, the justice minister.

Biz Ivol, from South Ronaldsay in Orkney, is a long-time supporter of
legalising cannabis which she claims alleviates the symptoms of her
multiple sclerosis.

She is due to appear at Kirkwall sheriff court next month where she faces
charges of possessing cannabis, producing two cannabis plants and supplying
the drug to others.

Ivol claims she has received backing for her campaign from Wallace, her
local MSP, for at least three years. She has received a letter of support
from him and he visited her at the home of a fellow sufferer and
campaigner. He also arranged to provide her with a list of MSPs so that she
could lobby them.

Her case highlights the dilemma faced by Wallace who, as political head of
the criminal justice system, is obliged to enforce a law with which he
doesn't agree.

As well as being justice minister, he is also leader of the Scottish
Liberal Democrats who favour the decriminalisation of cannabis for
medicinal purposes and support the creation of a Royal Commission to look
into the wider issue of soft drugs.

'Jim is in an invidious position,' said a friend of the minister. 'He has
made it clear, historically, that he is in favour of licensing cannabis for
medicinal use.

'But he is a government minister and this may be one that he will just have
to leave to the courts.

'He could still make representations on her behalf, along the lines of 'my
constituent wishes you to be aware of the following points' but it does
place him in a tricky situation.'

Wallace wrote to Ivol on September 15, 1999, after Scottish Nationalist MSP
Margo MacDonald proposed the establishment of a commission to examine the
possibility of changes in Scots law covering the use of cannabis in Scotland.

His letter stated: 'I continue to support the prescribed use of cannabis
for medicinal purposes and also the setting up of a Royal Commission to
examine the wider issue of the use of cannabis.'

Ivol claims that Wallace visited her at the home of fellow MS sufferer Bill
Reeve last year.

'He said that he was all for the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal
use. We just sat around and talked about what we were doing, campaigning.

'He took a note and got one of his minions to send a list of MSPs so that
we could write to them all. He wanted to do anything he could to help.'

Ivol also received a letter from Charles Kennedy, the Lib Dem's national
leader, on March 20, 2000. It said: 'The vast majority of experts agree
with you and it is only the failure of successive governments to face up to
the drugs debate that delays legislation. I wish you all the best of luck
in your campaign.'

In a recent television interview Tony Blair said that 'people will take a
sympathetic view' of her position.

Earlier this month, David Blunkett, the home secretary, relaxed the law on
cannabis possession, downgrading the drug from class B to class C. The
changes come into force in July 2003.

Ivol continues to receive the support of Alastair Carmichael, the Lib Dem
MP for Orkney.

He said: 'It is actually a very good example of how poor and contradictory
the government's drugs policy is at the moment.'

 

 

 

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