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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Campaigner who fought to legalise cannabis dies
Neil Moir Press & Journal, Aberdeen
Tuesday 07 Sep 2004 A Leading pro-cannabis campaigner and multiple sclerosis sufferer who made legal history has died in her Orkney home. Tributes were yesterday paid to Elizabeth Ivol - known as Biz - who had been suffering from a chest infection. It is understood Miss Ivol's health had been steadily deteriorating in recent months and that she had refused medication for the infection. The 56-year-old was known across the country for her battle to legalise cannabis, which she said provided the only relief for her condition. Her bold cultivation and use of the drug drew national attention, not least through the court appearances it led to. Miss Ivol was admonished by Kirkwall Sheriff Court in 1997 after she admitted growing 27 cannabis plants to relieve her pain. It was the first case of its kind, after the British Medical Association called on courts to be compassionate when sick people used the drug to ease their symptoms. Further court proceedings against Miss Ivol were abandoned at the court last year when she attempted suicide midway through the trial at Kirkwall after she heard that the case was being dropped. The court proceedings were abandoned on medical grounds. She had denied possession, production and supply of cannabis - although she admitted under cross-examination that she had produced cannabis chocolates for fellow-MS sufferers. "I was bitterly disappointed - it was not how I wanted it to end," she said at the time. "I wanted to change the law. I wanted to go all the way to the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights." Mrs Ivol, of Herston, South Ronaldsay, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the early 1990s. She described the pain of the illness as being like barbed wire being dragged through her spine, and also suffered muscle spasms and failing eyesight. Miss Ivol began using cannabis on the recommendation of her GP after every other treatment had failed. The fight by the "herbal suffragette" drew support from across the country, with a group of supporters even demonstrating in Parliament Square, London, over the attempts to prosecute her. Friends said Miss Ivol's condition had worsened to the point where she was only leaving her bed for a few hours a day. Legalise Cannabis Alliance spokeswoman Clara O'Donnell met Miss Ivol as she recovered in hospital following the court case last year, and planned to visit again later this month. "I think everyone is pleased in a way that she won't be suffering any more, but it's such a great loss," she said. "I hope that in some way it will make people a little bit more aware that people suffering from MS haven't got a lot else, and if they get cannabis to help them through their pain they should be allowed to use it." Independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald described Miss Ivol as one of the most admirable people she had met. "She stood the chance of being greatly misunderstood by lots of people," she said. "I think that being misunderstood and opening yourself up to uniformed criticism and questioning of your motives is a very hard thing to put up with when you have the physical difficulties and pain that Biz had. "She will be sadly missed."
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