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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Comment: Cannabis case and drug laws
Press & Journal, Aberdeen
Thursday 03 Jul 2003 LEADER ORKNEY woman Biz Ivol appears to have borne the worst of all worlds. She suffers multiple sclerosis now in an advanced stage; has faced legal charges for more than two years because cannabis is her chosen medication, and now has had her day in court taken from her since she is no longer fit enough to stand trial. Like most in Scotland, this newspaper is not in favour of legalising any drugs whose promotion, trade or use are currently illegal. This includes cannabis. Nevertheless, it does seem extraordinary that a drug which has been proven clinically to have medical benefits on several clearly defined medical conditions cannot be made available to registered sufferers. The infrastructure exists within the NHS to supervise and authorise many more complicated health-care arrangements. It cannot be beyond the bureaucratic abilities of an organisation to whom bureaucracy is second nature to co-operate with the judicial system and-politicians on developing and running a programme of medical authorisation for cannabis use. The clinical evidence exists, particularly in the case of multiple sclerosis, to support the view that cannabis use can be beneficial in the treatment of certain illness. To deny MS sufferers the relief they crave, purely on the grounds that supervision and containment would be difficult, surely demonstrates skewed priorities. Is it more important that those who need care receive it or that clerks are spared the pressure of the resulting work? Biz Ivol is the most prominent such case in Scotland at present, but she is far from the only one. Time might not be with her, but a forward-thinking nation, prepared to be flexible for the comfort of citizens who have too few comforts, would take her suffering as a cue to consider how not to see that suffering repeated needlessly.
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