MUM IN PLEA TO DRUG COURT

THE mother of cannabis campaigner Lezley Gibson has pleaded with the
judge preparing to sentence her daughter to be lenient, saying: "She
was just trying to help people."

Liz Nicholls, 63, spoke of the stress of seeing her seriously-ill
daughter give evidence in court before being convicted last month of
conspiring to supply the class C drug.

She has called on the government to change the laws surrounding
cannabis and for pharmaceutical companies to do more detailed
research into the drug's medical uses.

Mrs Gibson, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, and her husband Mark
produced more than 20,000 Canna-Biz chocolate bars at their Alston
home and sent them to others with the condition.

The couple, both 42, and 38-year-old Marcus Davies, of
Cambridgeshire, will all be sentenced by Judge John Phillips at
Carlisle Crown Court on January 26.

But Mrs Nicholls, who said her daughter was just using her own
experience with the drug and made the bars to help alleviate the
suffering of others, pleaded for Judge Phillips to be lenient.

She said: "They did not set out to make money."