05/02/2008 00:00:00
Finland: Finns in demo for jailed MS patient
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Demonstrators in Finland staged a protest on Monday evening in support
of a Swedish multiple sclerosis patient who was sentenced to jail after
growing cannabis for medicinal purposes.
Organizers said that 25 to 30 people gathered outside the Swedish
embassy in Helsinki at 6pm to express their outrage at the decision by a
Swedish court to jail 39-year-old Susanne Eriksson.
Sweden's press and cultural attaché Anders Eriksson came out of the
embassy to speak with the demonstrators, organizers said.
"The demonstrators presented their views of the unjustified sentence and
Swedish law praxis in general, and also their worry for Susanne's health
in jail," Panu Pietilä, a spokesman for the Hamppu.net group, told The
Local.
The organizers said that they would present their arguments to the
embassy in written form later this week.
Hamppu.net, an organization in favour of a more liberal approach to hemp
and cannabis, said they were also planning to launch a campaign
encouraging people to send cards and letters to Eriksson in prison.
Her cause has also been championed on social networking site Facebook,
where a group called Susanne Eriksson är ingen skurk ('Susanne Eriksson
is no criminal') has attracted almost 800 members.
On Sunday Eriksson travelled from the east coast to Hinseberg in central
Sweden to begin serving a one-year sentence.
Hinseberg is a top security women's prison reserved for inmates
convicted of crimes of a particularly serious nature.
Eriksson was found guilty of possession and distribution of narcotics.
The court also ruled that her belief in the healing properties of
cannabis constituted an aggravating factor.
Speaking to The Local a few days before the beginning of her sentence,
Eriksson said she could easily live without cannabis if push came to
shove but that she was not going to pretend she did not believe it had
helped alleviate the pain caused by her illness.
"My view on cannabis is that it relieves me of my pains and is a good
medicine, something that has even been proved scientifically. Because of
this I do not have the motivation to live a drug-free life, according to
the court."
While Eriksson admits giving cannabis to visitors, saying she was afraid
that people would report her to the police if she turned them down, she
insists she never sold it.
The cannabis plants confiscated by the police at Eriksson's apartment
had a combined weight, when dried, of one kilo. The court was not able
to ascertain with any certainty what proportion of the plants could be
used as a narcotic substance.
But a "balanced appraisal of the facts of the case" led the court to
sentence both Eriksson and her personal assistant to one year in jail.
Many other countries apply lenient sentences to medical use of cannabis,
or turn a blind eye altogether. The UK and Canada have even licensed the
drug Sativex, aannabis-based medicine which alleviates pain caused by MS.
http://www.thelocal.se/9889/20080205/
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=13253
Author:
The Local via UKCIA
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