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 case but said that officers had an obligation to uphold the law as it stands.

Source: The Times (UK)
Author: Gillian Harris, Scotland Correspondent
Published: Monday, July 23, 2001
Copyright: 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd.
Website: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/
Contact: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/section/0,,79,00.html

Related Articles & Web Site:

UK Medicinal Cannabis Project
http://www.medicinal-cannabis.org/

High Hopes for GW's Medicinal Cannabis
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10254.shtml

Wishing you very well on your bold adventure. Looking forward to hearing from you.

I couldn't have put it any more succinctly.

Just like every 'social drinker'. Everyone who drinks coffee. Or tea. Or eats chocolate. Just like every person who uses a psychotropic substance responsibly. (And if you think the caffeine in coffee is not a psychotropic substance, then I suggest you try putting up with someone who hasn't had their fix for the day.)

(I can just hear Frances saying, indignantly: "Chocolate? Chocolate's not a drug!" Dear Frances, theobromine, the principle ingredient of chocolate, is a drug. Wonder why children like it so much? It isn't just the sugar 'hit' they're getting, oh no. Given your kiddies any Hershey Bars, lately, for being good? Had any, yourself? So much for worries about sending the wrong message to The Youth of America; there are drugs right there in the shopping aisles of grocery stores, specifically targeting children as prospective consumers. And you aren't doing a single thing to stop it this coldly calculated dissipation of the young people of this nation. Shameful!)

Well, Joyce? Frances? She's eating it, not smoking it, which is the ostensible reason you two constantly give for maintaining the prohibition. Your much-vaunted, oh-so-unctuous concerns for people's health. There's no reason to be worried for her absorbing any carcinogens since she's taking the alimentary route of ingestion rather than the pulmonary.

(No 'tar' from combusted vegetable matter, don't you know? Of course, the facts never seem to bother you, anyway, your 'mind is made up' and you risk being confused by them.)

Perhaps we could take up a collection here for a plane ticket for you to fly to the Orkneys and tell this lady why she should do as you want her to and suffer terribly for your anti cause of not giving the wrong ideas to children. I believe that she'd tell you in no uncertain terms where to go...if not straight home, then to some place considerably Hotter.