'I INVENTED DRUG SWEETS TO HELP OTHERS'

A multiple sclerosis sufferer told a court yesterday how she invented
cannabis chocolate to help relieve the symptoms of other sufferers.

Elizabeth Ivol said that she began taking cannabis to numb the pain, which
she described as like having "barbed wire going through my spine".

Ivol, who denies possessing and supplying cannabis, described the drug as a
"natural God-given plant" and said it alleviated some of the misery caused
by the degenerative disease of the nervous system by relaxing her muscle
spasms and giving her an appetite.

Ivol, 55, of Herston, South Ronaldsay, eventually agreed to help other MS
sufferers by developing "special Belgian chocolates" and cannabis patches.

At Kirkwall sheriff court, Ivol said her former GP had recommended using
cannabis after legal medication had failed to help her. She told the court
she came up with the idea, along with others, of developing the cannabis
chocolates after agreeing to help a non-smoking MS sufferer.

Ivol stressed she passed on her chocolates only when approached and did not
encourage the use of the drug.

She told the court that her life had become almost unbearable since her
diagnosis in the early 90s.

"At the moment I feel like somebody's pulling barbed wire through my spine.
I have muscle spasms and my eyesight's failing but it has not gone yet. It
is very, very painful," she said.

"I'm completely and utterly paralysed from the neck down, more or less. A
nurse comes to get me up between nine and 10 o'clock and plonks me in the
wheelchair where I sit until about three o'clock when somebody comes and
puts me back to bed, and that's it.

"I can make myself a cup of tea, if my hands are alive, and answer the
phone. Usually by one o'clock my fingers are paralysed - I can't even hold
a pen."

Over the years she had taken prescription medication and had gone on
special diets, but nothing worked.

The side-effects of another drug had been "horrific" and increased her
pain. For two years she had contemplated taking cannabis before she finally
began to smoke a single "joint" each evening. She said: "It got to the
point where I felt that nobody was doing anything for MS and when you find
something that does alleviate the symptoms you go for it."

She added: "It is not like a nasty chemical drug, it is a natural God-given
plant."

Under cross-examination by the procurator fiscal, Sue Foard, Ivol admitted
to the court that she had in fact possessed, produced and supplied cannabis
but said she did not think she was doing anything wrong.

The trial, before Sheriff Colin Scott Mackenzie, was adjourned until July 2.