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UK: Overdose drama as Biz drugs charges dropped Lorraine Shearer The Orcadian, Orkney Thursday 03 Jul 2003 Orkney MS sufferer Biz Ivol was rushed to hospital after taking a suspected drug overdose - just hours before cannabis charges against her were dropped. An ambulance took Mrs Ivol (55), an outspoken cannabis campaigner, to Kirkwall's Balfour Hospital on Wednesday morning. A hospital spokesman described her condition as stable when The Orcadian went to press yesterday. The wheelchair-bound woman, of Herston, South Ronaldsay, was due back in court for the final part of a trial in which she was charged with supplying, possessing and growing cannabis. However, the charges were dropped on the grounds of Mrs Ivol's deteriorating health, confirmed in a letter by her GP. Before the last hearing Mrs Ivol claimed she would take her own life once the trial was over, and had already organised her funeral. According to reports, Mrs Ivol was disappointed at the way the case ended as she wanted to use it to publicise her campaign for the legalisation of medicinal cannabis, which she claims is the only drug to ease her pain. At a specially convened court at the wheelchair-friendly Pickaquoy Centre, procurator fiscal Ms Sue Foard said: "In view of the last report from Mrs Ivol's GP, indicating that she is now unfit for further court appearances, I am satisfied and happy for the prosecution to desert the diet simpliciter (simply, absolutely), thus bringing proceedings to an end." Sheriff Colin Scott Mackenzie commented that it was a sad and possibly unsatisfactory ending for the case. "It has attracted a great deal of attention throughout the country with the media and it may well be that Mrs Ivol has been unable to invoke what was primarily a defence of necessity properly." He continued: "That apart, given the publicity that this has attracted, I feel I ought to say any question of legalisation or decriminalisation is a matter for the politicians and not for the courts." The sheriff added that the Crown may not raise these particular proceedings again. Questions are now being asked as to why the case was ever brought to court costing tax-payers thousands of pounds - and according to Mrs Ivol, leading to attend the short hearing at the specially-convened court. Her supporters, including Orkney and Shetland MP Mr Alistair Carmichael, have called for an end to cases such as these. He praised Biz's "tremendous strength of character" and said suicide would be a tragic end. "She takes my breath away sometimes. She has been through so much, to end it in that way would be awful," he said. Mr Carmichael commented on the Crown position, saying: "It is the worst of all possible outcomes. We have spent a lot of public money prosecuting a woman who clearly was not well. Now we have no satisfactory outcome. Having said that, I have been predicting this would be the outcome. It has been apparent to me she was not fit to stand trial. You only have to see her to know that." The MP said he had always been a supporter of the licensing of medicinal cannabis." "That is something we have made progress on and we are getting a product at the end of this year. I only hope that Biz's will be the last case of this kind." Mr Carmichael, a lawyer, said the costs involved would be substantial, running to thousands of pounds. "Biz's advocate David Moggach will be on a legal aid-based rate which is about £400 a day for a junior counsel. Then there is the solicitor and his preparation and the cost of the expert witness, the police operation, the cost of me hire of the Pickaquoy Centre'- it will have run to thousands of pounds." It was alleged that Mrs Ivol supplied cannabis chocolates to John Murray, of 28 Dalgety Bay, Fife, between May and August, 2001. She was further charged with possessing cannabis and growing two cannabis plants at her home on August 6,2001. During the first sitting of Mrs Ivol's trial in the Pickaquoy Centre at the end of last month, she readily admitted the charges, although denied committing a crime. Speaking from his home in Dalgety Bay, Mr Murray said he was relieved to hear the charges had been dropped. Mr Murray had told the court earlier that he had contacted Mrs Ivol after reading about the cannabis chocolates she made in a newspaper article. He said his wife suffered from MS and he was looking to find some kind of relief for her. After contacting Biz, he said she sent them a package of seven chocolates, which his wife never used. "What she did tor us she did not have to" do. She was not doing it for anything other than the goodness of her heart which we very much appreciated." Don Barnard, of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance - a registered UK political party - was in Orkney yesterday in support of Mrs Ivol. On hearing of Mrs Ivol's suspected overdose, he said that the fight had to go on for all sufferers who benefited from cannabis. "We came up here to highlight me injustice of bringing Biz to court. "Whatever Biz has done, I believe that as a result of the pressure by the Scottish media on the Scottish justice System and Westminster that whoever is in charge here has had instructions to drop this case because it is going to become a massive embarrassment to national government," Mr Barnard concluded. Inspector Bob Pollock, of Northern Constabulary said: "We have a duty to enforce the law in relation to me illegal supply of controlled drugs and any person who deals in illegal substances. "Cannabis remains an illegal drug and its reclassification from B to C in no way represents a move towards decriminalisation or legalisation.'"
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