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(IMG:http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42391000/jpg/_42391110_chocannabipa.jpg)
Cash receipts totalling 30,000 were seized by police

Three people have been found guilty of supplying thousands of cannabis-laced chocolate bars to multiple sclerosis sufferers for pain relief.
Mark Gibson and his wife Lezley, both 42, of Alston, Cumbria, were standing trial at Carlisle Crown Court with Marcus Davies, 36, of St Ives, Cambs.

They were convicted of two counts each of conspiring to supply cannabis throughout 2004 until February 2005.

All three were ordered to return to court on 26 January for sentencing.

The Cumbrian couple admitted running a cottage industry making and posting out more than 20,000 Canna-Biz bars containing about 3.5g of the drug, to victims of the disease around the world.

But in their testimonies they both insisted this was a free service funded by voluntary donations, which was only available to MS sufferers who provided a medical note confirming their condition.

Davies admitted running a website and post office box, but had denied any involvement in making or posting the chocolate.

Cash receipts totalling 30,000 were seized by police, but the court heard Lezley Gibson told officers these referred to donations, which were ploughed "straight back in" to fund the Canna-Biz operation.

All three told the court they believed they had a defence of medical necessity in supplying the cannabis-laced bars, but this was rejected by the jury.

After the hearing Lezley Gibson said: "The maximum sentence for what we've been found guilty of is 14 years in jail. If you were a child pervert your maximum sentence is only 12.

"I think there's a mistake in the law, and I think they really, really really need to re-think the law on cannabis and medicinal use. Bringing ill people to court and torturing them like this isn't what you do.

"You look after ill people, and you try to make them better. You do not torture them and drag them back and forward to a court of law."

BBC

Not as many as the Catholic Church.

Spoken like a true Protestant!

Choc bar drugs pair will appeal

The Sunday Sun

A disabled woman found guilty of supplying drugs to fellow multiple sclerosis sufferers said she will appeal against her conviction.

Lezley Gibson has not given up her fight to legally supply thousands of MS sufferers with the class-C drug, which she and other campaigners claim is the only effective treatment to alleviate the debilitating condition.

Lezley, 42, of Alston, Cumbria, also says that, following her conviction last week, she has been left to celebrate Christmas with the fear that she and her husband Mark - who was also found guilty - will be sent to prison next year.

She said: "I am still in shock that we were found guilty.

"I thought there would have been at least some of the jury who could see past the black and white regulations of the law and see we were only supplying to people in genuine medical need."

Lezley, Mark, also 42, and Marcus Davies, 36, from St Ives in Cambridgeshire, were convicted of two counts each of conspiring to supply cannabis at Carlisle Crown Court on Friday.

The trio had distributed by post more than 20,000 chocolate bars, each containing around 3.5g of the drug, to people in the UK.

Lezley, who was diag- nosed with the condition at 21, said: "Sentencing has been adjourned until next year.

"The judge said we were in no immediate danger of going to jail, but I'm not sure what that means.

"If he had ruled it out completely then he should have said so."

Lezley also argues that the judgment will effectively fuel street drug dealing.

She claims that the thousands of MS sufferers across the UK who she used to supply will now be forced to source the class-C drug from street dealers.

She explained: "I used to have to seek drug dealers out in pubs.

"There were times I would be given cannabis that I wouldn't use to polish my shoes.

"There were other times I handed over money and the dealer just disappeared.

"This ruling is a step backwards for MS treatment in this country.

"Conventional drugs don't work for a lot of people and I can't think of any other condition where sufferers are denied medicine.

"You wouldn't deny an asthmatic an inhaler."

And she added: "I will be appealing and my barrister has already started to work on that."

Ear

Bongme