MS sufferers want end to medicinal cannabis cases
(From The Orcadian dated October 5, 2000)

Orkney MS sufferers have called on the Crown Office to stop “wasting taxpayers’ money” by prosecuting for the medicinal use of cannabis – when in most cases the accused are cleared anyway.

Orkney MSP Mr Jim Wallace, himself a supporter of medicinal cannabis use, has agreed that it is a law which needs to be changed.

He plans to write to the Lord Advocate for information as to exactly how many cases have been taken to court, and subsequently abandoned, in recent years.

“I also want to know Crown Office policy in relation to prosecution where there is clearly a medicinal element with regard to usage.

Mr Wallace has also called on the Government to attend a conference on cannabis next year, if it will allow a serious and balanced examination of the effects of the use of cannabis.

Biz Ivol (52), from Herston in South Ronaldsay, who suffers from the muscle-wasting disease, has been in close contact with Lezley Gibson (36) – an MS sufferer from Cumbria who was cleared at the end of September of possessing cannabis, after saying she needed the drug to relieve the symptoms of the disease.

Mrs Ivol said: “Her case was adjourned many times and ended up being a jury trial. It must have cost tens of thousands of pounds. I do not understand what is going on, every single case that has come up recently, it has just been thrown out. The Crown Prosecution are wasting their time.”

Ms Gibson herself had been in no doubt that she would be cleared, according to Mrs Ivol. “She was full of confidence, she knew there was no way they could send her to prison. She is going to start growing cannabis again as soon as possible – there is nothing else which alleviates her symptoms.”

Lezley Gibson was found not guilty at Carlisle Crown Court after denying possessing £40 of the drug on the grounds that she needs it for medical reasons.

Mrs Ivol knows first-hand what it is like to be on the wrong side of the law. She was admonished by Kirkwall Sheriff Court in 1997 after admitting growing 27 cannabis plants to relieve the pain of MS.

She too has vowed to continue growing and using cannabis, and only recently announced that she and other MS sufferers plan to launch an information pack detailing how to get hold of the drug.

Although this latest case has highlighted their fight for the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal use, she says it won’t make any difference in the minds of MPs.

“As long as some MPs are taking money from brewers and drugs companies they will keep it illegal. Nobody can make any money out of it if it’s legalised.”

There will not be a change, not in my lifetime, she added.

“Because most people mix it with tobacco it has got a bad name and because of the hippies in the 60s and 70s. Most people I know eat it, they mix it with chocolate and eat it. You can mix it with butter, which makes it stronger,” she said.

Mrs Ivol and fellow Orkney MS sufferer Bill Reeve have campaigned tirelessly for the legalisation of cannabis and have been lobbying Mr Wallace to get the Government to participate in a conference on cannabis to be held next spring.

The conference is being organised by Minister Borst of the Netherlands along with ministers from the German and Swiss Governments. The conference is to be addressed by scientists giving their assessment of the dangers and benefits of the use of cannabis.

Mr Wallace has written to Health Secretary Allan Milburn passing on the request of the Orkney campaigners.

“I do not have sufficient information on the conference to allow me to make an unqualified endorsement of my constituents’ request. However, I can say that, if it will allow a serious and balanced examination of the effects of the use of cannabis, then I certainly believe that the UK should take part.”

He continued: “I have constituents who suffer from MS, and who have found that the use of cannabis can significantly help reduce the symptoms of the disease, without any of the side effects of many licensed medical drugs.”

MS sufferers are frustrated by the apparent slow progress being made towards the licensing of cannabis as a medicine.

In the letter to Mr Milburn, Mr Wallace states: “If the conference can provide any additional information which will allow you to make quicker progress towards the licensing of cannabis, then the UK’s involvement could help bring early relief to many MS patients.”

lorraine.shearer@orcadian.co.uk