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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Pro-cannabis campaigner in suspected drug overdose John Ross The Scotsman Thursday 03 Jul 2003 BIZ IVOL, the Orkney cannabis campaigner, was seriously ill in hospital last night after a suspected overdose on the day charges against her for supplying the drug were dropped. Mrs Ivol, 56, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair, was found unconscious in her home in South Ronaldsay about 9am yesterday. She was discovered by a neighbour, Bobby McCutcheon, who accompanied her to hospital in Kirkwall, where her condition is "stable". Cannabis campaigners who had travelled from the south of England to support Mrs Ivol in court were left stunned by the news. Some had camped overnight 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 which she defended the use of cannabis for MS sufferers. In a radio interview yesterday morning, she said: "My final protest will be to overdose on paracetamol. I will get stoned first so I don't feel any pain. Then I will take the paracetamol and go to sleep and it's all over 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, estimated to cost about £1,000. Mrs Ivol stood trial last month on charges of cultivating, possessing and supplying cannabis, resulting from a police raid two years ago. The charges relate to the supply of cannabis-laced chocolates to fellow MS sufferers. Others plan to continue producing the chocolates, with the name changed from "canna-chocs" to "cannabiz", after Mrs Ivol. The court case had been continued until yesterday, but Mrs Ivol learned on Tuesday that it would not be proceeding. This was confirmed yesterday, when Sue Foard, the procurator fiscal, accepted a report from Mrs Ivol's GP that she was unfit for any further court appearance. The sheriff, Colin Scott 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 matter for the politicians and not for the courts. Last night, Alistair Carmichael, the MP for Orkney and Shetland, said: "A lot of public money has been spent raising a prosecution against a woman 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 this so openly and it was possibly open to abuse. But the continuation to the point it reached was a bad call. If she was too ill yesterday, then she was too ill when the case started." Don Barnard, a spokesman for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, said: "Why did they not stop this case two years ago? There was no reason for going ahead. It was immoral." The Crown Office said the decision was based purely on the medical evidence and not on Mrs Ivol's campaign to legalise cannabis.
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