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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: No winners in long-running campaign
The Orcadian, Orkney
Thursday 03 Jul 2003 Biz Ivol has been an outspoken cannabis campaigner for several years and has never shied away from media attention to highlight the case for the legalisation of the drug for medicinal purposes. She first provoked headlines in 1999 when she tied herself to a standing stone. Then in July, 2001 The Orcadian revealed that Mrs Ivol and a fellow MS sufferer were making cannabis chocolates and supplying them free of charge to fellow sufferers. The national press were quick to pick up on the story and it turned into a media circus. Information packs, detailing how to make the cannabis chocolates and "reputable" cannabis sources were sent out in their hundreds to people, by Mrs Ivol. It was only a month later that her home in South Ronaldsay was raided by police and a number of items were seized for analysis. Despite being the second time her home had been raided by police, she remained defiant and vowed to fight on. The stress of that situation, she claimed, led to a deterioration in her condition and she ended up in a wheelchair. Following the raid, Welsh MP John Owen Jones lent his support to Mrs Ivol and her cause. He said at the time that the police should be "ashamed and embarrassed by their conduct in prosecuting a person who is simply trying to alleviate the symptoms and the pain of her disease." In November, 2001, Mrs Ivol was charged with supplying cannabis chocolates under the Misuse of Drugs Act. She continued to be defiant. After several court callings and delays, the trial finally got under way on June 18 - almost two years after her home was raided. At the hearing, she described how the class B drug relieved her symptoms, one of which "feels like someone is pulling barbed wire through my spine". She openly admitted using, growing and supplying cannabis, but said she did not feel guilty, which is why she denied the charges. By yesterday (July 2) it was all over and the case was dropped by the Crown on the grounds of medical reasons. Biz Ivol has remained defiant throughout. She said she would continue to use cannabis and to supply to others if they requested it, despite the risk of prosecution. But she is a woman already imprisoned within her own body, her condition worsened by the stress of fighting for a cause which she believes will help her and thousands of others like her. The public purse has been hit by a bill for tens of thousands of pounds. So, in the end is anybody a winner?
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