Elizabeth “Biz” Ivol, 55, a multiple sclerosis sufferer from Herston on South Ronaldsay, had been arrested and charged in 2001 after a police raid on her home revealed she was baking cannabis-laced Belgian chocolates, “Canna-choc”, and sending them to fellow sufferers who did not smoke.[1] She pleaded not guilty to three charges of possessing, producing and supplying cannabis, but admitted under cross-examination that she had produced the chocolates to help other MS patients.[2]
When her trial reconvened at Kirkwall on Wednesday 2 July 2003, the Crown dropped the case on medical grounds after her GP reported that worsening multiple sclerosis left her unfit to stand trial; her solicitor told the court she could not have appeared in any case.[1][2] That morning Ivol was rushed unconscious to Balfour hospital in Kirkwall with a suspected overdose, having publicly promised to take her own life if the prosecution went ahead.[1] Her supporters blamed two years of prosecution stress for the rapid deterioration in her condition.[2]
A week later supporters demonstrated in Parliament Square in London, where one of them was arrested for smoking a cannabis joint, while a fellow campaigner argued the case had been dropped as not in the public interest rather than because of the hospitalisation.[2]
