POLICE DRUG RAID HITS MS SUFFERERS
Source: The Scotsman
Pub date: July 11, 2005
Author: John Ross
Web: http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=220&id=767782005
Cited: Biz Ivol
http://www.ccguide.org/bizivol.php
Lezley
Gibson http://www.ccguide.org/lezleygibson.php
THC4MS http://www.thc4ms.org.uk/
Petition: http://www.ethical-business.com/default.asp?sect=detail&pet=2001
HUNDREDS of multiple sclerosis (MS) sufferers fear they may have to turn to
drug dealers after police stopped a supply of cannabis-laced chocolates used to
ease their pain.
The THC4MS
group (therapeutic cannabis for MS) has been sending out free chocolate bars
for over ten years to those whose doctors confirm they have the condition.
However the group, based in the north of England, was raided by police
recently and equipment confiscated.
The service was a first point of contact for sufferers who saw cannabis
as a medicine.
Cannabis chocolates were first made by Biz Ivol in Orkney, who sent them
to fellow MS patients. Ms Ivol, who died last year, was charged in 2003 with
cultivating, possessing and supplying the drug, although the case was later
dropped.
THC4MS began making the cannabis chocolates after Ms Ivol's death, and renamed
the product Canna-biz.
Mark Gibson, who runs the service with his wife Lesley, an MS sufferer,
told The Scotsman the raid followed a package containing the chocolates
bursting open in the post. "We were an open secret. We were sending to
people from Orkney to Penzance and were tolerated. But this hiccup got the
police interested," he said.
He and his wife were arrested and bailed. Three more people have since
been arrested, though no charges have yet been brought.
A Cumbria Police spokesman confirmed five arrests. One woman was later released without charge and the others were bailed until 25 and 26 July for further inquiries.