MY FINAL PROTEST FAILED - BIZ IVOL

Orkney MS sufferer Biz Ivol was given the all-clear to return home from her
hospital bed by a psychiatrist - despite openly threatening a second suicide
attempt.

The 55-year-old was discharged from Kirkwall's Balfour Hospital on Saturday,
after taking 25 paracetemol tablets at her home in South Ronaldsay on
Tuesday night of last week.

But she will have to wait four weeks to see if her liver has been damaged by
the painkilling drug.

She claims to have taken the overdose after being frustrated by the Crown
Office to drop the cannabis charges against her on medical grounds. Mrs Ivol
wanted to see her trial, in which she was fighting charges of supplying,
possessing and growing cannabis, through to the end, claiming she would have
taken her case to the European courts if necessary. She said the crown
Office action was an "opt out".

"That is what made me really cross. I knew they were going to drop the
criminal charges. I wanted it to go to the High Court in Edinburgh and then
the European Court of Human Rights. It has all been swept under the carpet."
Mrs Ivol has also spoken of her frustration at waking up in a hospital bed
and the fact she relied on friends to supply her with cannabis chocolates to
alleviate her MS symptoms while there.

The day before being discharged from hospital in Kirkwall, the cannabis
campaigner was flown by air ambulance to a hospital in Aberdeen where she
was assessed by a psychiatrist.

On Monday, from her home, which has been filled with cards and flowers from
supporters Biz said: "I asked why a psychiatrist couldn't be flown here to
see me to save organising the ambulance flight and everything. The
psychiatrist said I was sane. I spoke to him for half an hour. He said any
fit and well person would be stressed by what I have been through." She
admitted telling him that she would attempt suicide again. "I think he said
that he was going to talk to my care manager and try to sort something out
there."

But she said it is too late for increased home help now, with her MS in an
advanced state.

"The MS has piled on and I have not got any quality of life. I have got to
figure out a foolproof way of doing it (committing suicide) now." Taking her
own life was to have been her final protest at the authorities for what she
claims is their failure to recognise the medicinal properties of cannabis.

And late on Tuesday night, she, albeit unsuccessfully, carried out that
threat. "I was expecting visitors that night and they didn't turn up so I
thought 'sod it I may as well go now.' I tool ten paracetemol, had a joint
and fell asleep. I woke up about 2am and took another ten paracetemol and
another joint. I woke up at 5am feeling fine. I could only find another five
paracetemol and I took them. The other five had fallen on the floor and I
couldn't get to them. I went back to sleep."

Mrs Ivol she told a neighbour who visited her on Wednesday morning what she
had done and asked if she would give her the remaining five tablets. "She
went and told her husband what I had done and they phoned the doctor. I told
the doctor I did not want resuscitating but they sent me to the hospital."
She remains angry at the failed attempt.

"I cannot do anything properly," she said. "That is the story of my life. It
was supposed to be my final protest but I couldn't even do that right."
However, Mrs Ivol, who has attracted widespread support for her campaign for
the legalisation of cannabis, has vowed to attempt taking her life again. "I
don't know when, but I will," she said.

She has received hundreds of messages of support, including some from
politicians, but despite this she says she is too tired to continue the
fight and is not hopeful of a change in the law.

"I have done my bit. Someone else can take it up now," Mrs Ivol concluded.
Orkney's director of social work Mr Harry Garland said the department could
not comment on specific cases.

"Obviously, the department takes very seriously all individuals' health and
well-being within the bounds of the statutory requirements that are placed
within the local authority and the social work department. "At all times we
endeavour to work with people on a partnership basis to look at what support
can be provided. It is not our role to enforce any service upon those who do
not wish it," he said In a statement last week, the Crown Office said the
decision to drop the charges was based "purely on the recent medical
evidence and has in no way been influenced by Mrs Ivol's ongoing campaign to
have (medicinal) cannabis legalised."

It continued:" A report on her current medical condition was provided to the
procurator fiscal by the defence agent. This report confirmed she was no
longer fit to stand trial.

"The Crown has a duty to prosecute where there is a sufficiency of evidence
and where it is in the public interest to do so. Mrs Ivol admitted in court
to the serious offence of growing, using and supplying cannabis and pled not
guilty."

The statement concluded: "In every case the crown also has an ongoing duty
to assess whether the public interest remains best served by prosecution.
"It has always been made clear to the accused through her agent that should
there be any further medical evidence produced, its terms would be careful
considered. As medical evidence is now available to show that Mrs Ivol is no
longer fit to stand trial, the public interest in proceeding has been
reassessed and the crown concluded that there was no alternative but to stop
proceedings."

As to the actual cost to the tax-payer of the crown proceedings, officials
said they were unable to estimate the amount at this stage. A poll conducted
by Grampian TV's North tonight programme found 94 per cent of people were in
favour of legalising cannabis.