Pubdate: Mon, 23 Jul 2001
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact:  http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/454
Author: By Gillian Harris, Scotland Correspondent

MS SUFFERER SELLS CANNABIS CHOCS

A HOUSEWIFE from Orkney is filling Belgian chocolates with cannabis and 
sending them to Multiple Sclerosis sufferers around the world.

Biz Ivol, 53, who suffers from MS herself, grows her own supply  of 
cannabis which she makes into a powder and adds to the  melted chocolate. 
She claims that her sweets help alleviate the  painful symptoms of MS.

Since embarking on her project Mrs Ivol has had requests for her cannabis 
chocolates from Finland and the United States. The  demand has persuaded 
her to apply to Orkney Islands Council for  a business grant to buy a 
sweet-making machine and a triple-glazed greenhouse to grow her cannabis 
plants.

However, Mrs Ivol's application is likely to run into opposition from 
critics who claim that the reportedly relaxed approach of the islands' 
police force to soft drug taking is making it too easy for  islanders to 
break the law.

There were complaints last year when the procurator fiscal declined to 
pursue charges against a man from Shetland accused of growing cannabis 
because a prosecution would not be in the public interest.

Mrs Ivol, who was diagnosed as having MS ten years ago, has   already had 
one run in with the law. Four years ago she was admonished for possessing a 
cannabis plant.

She acknowledges that in going public with her activities she could now 
face criminal charges. In growing, using and selling cannabis she is 
breaking the law. The MS sufferers who receive the cannabis chocolates 
could also be charged with possession although, in some cases, Mrs Ivol 
simply sends a copy of the recipe and the recipient has to track down their 
own supply of cannabis.

Despite this she has carried on using the drug, insisting that without it 
her illness would be far more difficult to live with.

If I stop, I notice the difference. I get awful muscle spasms and the pain 
is horrific. You don't just sit there stoned talking rubbish. It's not a 
big dose, not as much as you would use in a joint.

No one else is helping us, so we have to help ourselves. Everyone has just 
kept what they are doing quiet because it is  illegal," she told a Scottish 
newspaper. Mrs Ivol added that the mix of cannabis in chocolate was a safer 
way to ingest the drug for people who want to avoid the health risks of 
smoking. She said that high-quality Belgian chocolate proved the best mixer 
because it has a low fat content compared with other brands of chocolate.

The campaign for the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal treatment is 
winning support from a growing number of doctors in Britain. Mrs Ivol 
claims that the tacit approval of many GPs has encouraged MS sufferers who 
would not normally consider breaking the law to use cannabis.

The Government has licensed GW Pharmaceuticals to carry out research into 
the efficacy of cannabis-based medicines to alleviate pain but although the 
initial reports from clinical trials are encouraging, no drugs will be 
available before 2003 at the earliest.

Mrs Ivol said: "There's a hell of a lot of difference between drug use and 
drug abuse. This isn't drug abuse. I just use it."

A spokesman for Northern Constabulary in Orkney declined to comment on an 
individual cse but said that officers had an obligation to uphold the law 
as it stands.
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