04.12.06
Smoke it or eat it: cannabis has well known health risks
A couple from Cumbria are to go on trial for allegedly supplying chocolate bars laced with cannabis to help relieve the pain of multiple sclerosis sufferers.
Gift shop manager Mark Gibson, 42, and his wife Lezley, 42, who has MS, both from Alston, are charged alongside Marcus Davies, 36, from St Ives, Cambridgeshire.
All three face two charges each of conspiring together to supply cannabis. All three deny the charges.
It is alleged they supplied home-made "Canna-Biz" bars by post to patients with multiple sclerosis, a progressive crippling illness that can produce intense pain.
Supplying cannabis, even for medicinal purposes, without proper authority is a criminal offence. They were arrested in February 2005.
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The maximum penalty is 14 years' jail for supplying a class C drug.
The three defendants are members of a not-for-profit organisation, Therapeutic Help from Cannabis for Multiple Sclerosis, (THC4MS).
The trial, at Carlisle Crown Court, is scheduled to last 7 days.
