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UK: MS sufferer too ill to be tried over cannabis
Shirley English The Times
Thursday 03 Jul 2003 THE case against a wheelchair-bound Orkney woman facing charges of supplying cannabis chocolates to fellow multiple sclerosis sufferers was dropped by the Crown Office yesterday. The move came as the accused, Elizabeth Ivol, 55, was taken unconscious to hospital by ambulance from her home in South Ronaldsay early yesterday. Before the case came to court she had threatened to commit suicide after her trial, claiming that the crippling disease now caused her so much pain that her life was no longer worth living without the drug. A spokesman for NHS Orkney, speaking at the island's Balfour Hospital, said that Mrs Ivol's condition was stable last night. The Crown Office confirmed that the case against her had been dropped on medical grounds as Mrs Ivol was no longer fit to stand trial and it was no longer in the public interest to pursue the matter. In a statement the Crown Office said: "The Crown's decision is based purely on the recent medical evidence and has in no way been influenced by Mrs Ivol's ongoing campaign to have cannabis legalised. "The Crown has a duty to prosecute where there is a sufficiency of evidence and where it is in the public interest to do so. Mrs Ivol admitted in court to the serious offence of growing, using and supplying cannabis but pleaded not guilty." Northern Constabulary also issued a statement advising the public that cannabis remained an illegal drug and that they would continue to prosecute anyone dealing in illegal substances. Mrs Ivol's case, believed to be the first in Britain where a person has been prosecuted for using cannabis for medical reasons, had attracted widespread support among cannabis campaigners. A small group of supporters were camped in her garden, ready to offer their backing at the trial which was due to restart yesterday, when the medical emergency occurred. They said they had travelled to the island in an attempt to convince Mrs Ivol, known to her friends as Biz, not to take her own life. Clara O'Donnell, a spokewoman for Legalise Cannabis Alliance, said: "When we woke this morning we didn't want to disturb Biz by knocking on her door in case she was still asleep. "A neighbour called round and the next thing we knew she had been taken away by an ambulance." During her trial, which began two weeks ago, Mrs Ivol, a long-time campaigner for the legalisation of cannabis, was charged with growing, handling and dealing the Class C drug. She admitted that she had developed "special Belgian chocolates" laced with cannabis that she posted to MS sufferers around Britain, but pleaded not guilty in court because she believed that she had done nothing wrong. She had started using the drug when her life became unbearable, a few years after she had been found to be suffering the crippling disease in 1990. She said that legal medication made no difference to the pain that she suffered which she compared to "barbed wire being pulled through my spine". She said that she had been advised by her doctor to try cannabis and she had found that it was the only drug that eased her pain. This week she reiterated her suicide threat in a BBC Scotland interview, saying that she planned to overdose on painkillers. "With a bit of luck I will get stoned before I do it and then I will go to sleep. Then it will be over and done with and someone else can take over from me. I'm tired."
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