Topnotch Share Discussion Threads

[kcowe] 21/3/2007 19:04

Someone as you I admire.... someone with a social concience!! Bravo..::))

[tonystringy] 16/12/2006 22:49

For further information on this trial, please read the following articles and an excerpt from a write up by another Court attendee.





When Marcus met Mark and offered to do a web site for THC4MS, he did ask if he might try some of their chocolate, but was refused because it is for MS sufferers only. Marcus Davies may be ill and he may use cannabis medicinally, but he can't have CannaBiz chocolate from THC4MS because it is intended exclusively for multiple sclerosis patients. "We're not able to help everyone who could benefit from cannabis, because the law would frown on that, but we knew we were on safe ground with MS," Marcus said. He then read then mission statement that has appeared on thc4ms.org since its inception. No, I'm not going to repeat it. It's still there: the one about carrying on supplying MS sufferers until the legal alternative become available in 2004. You know, that legal alternative that became available in 2004, but actually isn't available because the MHRA won't give it a license.

[tonystringy] 16/12/2006 22:49

The judge's instructions took over 1hr to deliver. They were carefully and precisely worded, so as to leave no doubt in the juror's minds as to what their function was.

Morality was not an issue. It was not allowed to be an issue. The jurors could not allow it to be an issue without breaking their oaths.

I cannot say how the jurors would have found the defendants had this not been the case. Only they themselves could answer that question but having sat through the case myself, I find it very hard to believe that they would have found the defendants guilty, had they been allowed to consider such things as motive, intent and the good that THC4MS had done.

[tonystringy] 11/12/2006 20:18

THC4MS Trial
Monday, 11/12/06

From an email I've just sent to the LCA (Legalise Cannabis Alliance).


All in all, the day seemed to go very well for the defence. Certainly better than I expected.

Mark was first up and as always answered all questions put to him clearly and made a very credible witness. His past training and experience in the field of food hygene all came out and so did the details of all the locations where Mark had given talks (lectures) on the subject of medicinal cannabis use.......quite an impressive list it was too. Also mentioned were all the various publications, Newspaper features etc that THC4MS had appeared in over the years.

Only once did he get agitated. That was when the prosecution barrister put it to Mark that no person who had actually supplied cannabis to another had ever been aquitted on the grounds of 'medical necessity'. Mark answered 'Yes they have' the barrister continued as though he hadn't heard Marks response so Mark repeated more loudly 'Oh yes they have!'. He was correct of course and went on to name cases.

Mark also explained for the benefit of the whole Court (Judge included) the ridiculous procedure involved in obtaining a license to prescribe Sativex to a patient and how very few patients are successful in obtaining it from their GP. (Basically the GP has to apply to the Home Office for a license to prescribe the Sativex to the patient who themselves must be granted a license to use it.)

During the questioning, Mark made it clear that although donations were usually made this was not a requirement and many patients were sent Cannabiz who had made no donations.

There's lot's more and i could go on and on but they're the points that stick out the most in my mind.

Two wheelchair bound MS sufferers then gave brief testimonies to the Court. The first was a lady from Wigton who had never met Mark or Lezley but had benifitted from the use of Cannabiz choc. She also confirmed that no money was required for her to recieve the choc but a donation was suggested. The second, a Solicitor who had to retire due to his MS........his testimony was basically the same as the lady's.

Then came Lezley's turn.

Very, very moving. I myself was close to tears twice, as Lezley told of her illness and how it had cut short a very promising career as a self-employed hairdresser. The competition she had won prior to being diagnosed etc.

Whilst explaining to the Court how she had first come across Biz Ivol and the work Biz had done she became a bit upset. Lezley explained to the court how Biz's health had deteriorated each time she was dragged through the Courts. This was very upsetting to hear.......and I'm sure just as much for the jury as it was for the rest of us.

Also mentioned were Lezley's appearences on Kilroy, an Ester Rantzen program, Radio4 etc, etc.

The prosecution barrister had little offer the Court and the only critical thing I can recall is that he suggested that Lezley knew what she was doing was against the law but decided to continue regardless. Lezley's reply to this was simply that sick people should not face prosecution for seeking their medicine (implying that niether should those helping the sick to obtain their medicine).

Thankfully the prosecution barrister didn't give Lezley too much of a hard time......then it would hardly have helped him if he had, a fact which I'm sure wasn't lost on him! -I'd say the prosecution already looked bad enough by the end of the day (the villains of the piece).

Well, that's the main bits I can recall. No doubt I'll remember more important stuff after I post this but I hope I've managed to provide enough of a picture of the day there.

Tony

[tonystringy] 06/12/2006 22:41

What a sterling job the police did in finding all that evidence!

Especially as Mark had told them during numerous interviews in the past that he and his wife were producing and distributing the CannaBiz choc from their home........and that they had no intention of ceasing until a viable alternative was available legally.

He also told them they were welcome to call at the house anytime and would be shown the operation without a search warrent.

[tonystringy] 06/12/2006 22:35

Source: thisislondon.co.uk
Date: December 6 2006

---
Cash receipts totalling £30,000 were seized from the home of a couple
who supplied chocolate bars laced with cannabis to multiple sclerosis
sufferers, a court heard today.

Mark Gibson, 42, and his wife Lezley, 42, who has MS, told police they
made the Canna-Biz bars containing around 3.5gms of the drug in their
kitchen and then posted them out on request.

They estimated they sent out around 22,000 bars over the last six years.

But the couple, from Alston, Cumbria, deny two charges each of
conspiring to supply cannabis.

Marcus Davies, a school friend of Mark Gibson who is standing trial with
them at Carlisle Crown Court, denies the same charges.

He told police he operated a post office box for the cottage industry,
which advertised through a website he ran for their not-for-profit
organisation Therapeutic Help from Cannabis for Multiple Sclerosis,
www.thc4ms.org. But he denied being involved in the making or supply of
the chocolate.

The trio were arrested after 33 Jiffy bags containing the Canna-Biz bars
were seized from the Royal Mail's Junction Street sorting office in
Carlisle in January this year.

Today, the jury heard Lezley Gibson told police all the money mentioned
in the receipts went "straight back in" to the chocolate-making operation.

The trio claims any money received was donated and sufferers were not
asked to pay for the bars. In the interview, read out to the court, she
said: "You see my house, my clothes, my car.

"We don't have any money, we just want to help people. We don't want to
line our pockets." She estimated she and her husband had sent out
Canna-Biz bars to over 2,000 people and were regularly in touch with 100
MS sufferers each week.

The case was adjourned until Friday when the prosecution will examine
its final witness. The defence is now not expected to open until Monday.

[tonystringy] 06/12/2006 22:32

The Times December 06, 2006


Cannabis chocolate 'made to ease MS'
Russell Jenkins

'22,000 bars were sent to sufferers'

'Pots, pans and plants at home'




Multiple sclerosis sufferers around the world swore by the chocolate bars made at Mark and Lezley Gibson's gift shop in the Lake District.
The couple sent out about 22,000 of their bars and made no secret on their website of the special ingredient that made them so popular.



But that ingredient was to lead Mr and Mrs Gibson into the dock at Carlisle Crown Court yesterday, where both are accused of conspiring to supply cannabis.

Along with a family friend, Marcus Davies, 36, they set up the campaign group Therapeutic Help from Cannabis for Multiple Sclerosis and on their website, www.thc4ms.org, offered their "Canna-Biz" chocolate bars, the court was told.

Mrs Gibson, who suffers from MS, her 42-year-old husband and Mr Davies made no secret of their campaign to legalise cannabis for therapeutic pain relief.

They made no charge but there was a request that each "buyer" establish that they were an MS sufferer and that they make a donation to meet production costs.

Over a period throughout 2004 and up to February last year about 22,000 of the 150g (5oz) bars were despatched, each one of them laced with 3.5g of cannabis. A mailing list with 460 addresses was later found by police.

Mr Gibson and his wife, from Alston, Cumbria, along with Mr Davies, from St Ives, Cambridgeshire, who is said to have operated a post office box address for the cottage industry, deny the conspiracy charges against them.

Jeremy Grout-Smith, for the prosecution, told the jury that while the trio might be well intentioned, they had no defence against the charges which carry a maximum sentence of 14 years' imprisonment.

"To supply cannabis, even if you believe it is doing some good, is not a defence," he said.

The court was told that police became involved in January when the duty manager at the Royal Mail sorting office in Carlisle contacted them about a package which had spilled open during sorting. Officers seized 33 Jiffy bags containing the Canna-Biz product. Each of the packets carried a PO box address in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, as the return address. The wrappers also carried the website address which was later found to be run by the three defendants.

Mr Grout-Smith said that they were not conventional drug dealers but believed their actions would help to alleviate the pain of a debilitating illness. MS is a progressive disease which attacks the central nervous system.

Officers raided the Gibsons' home in February, discovering cannabis chocolate bars, labels, packages and a mailing list.

Mr Grout-Smith said: "They also found some machinery for the manufacture of the bars, pots, pans, and a grinder, all to be used in what was really a cottage industry to make chocolate bars impregnated with cannabis.

"When analysed they were found to contain 3.5g of cannabis each, ground up and distributed throughout the 150g bar."

Several months later officers pursued their investigations to Mr Davies's home where they found cannabis plants in two sheds. The householder insisted the cannabis was for his own use.

Details were found of three bank accounts, registered in the name of Mr Davies's girlfriend, in which about £40,000 had been deposited during a two-year period.

At least two of the accounts were thought to be used for money related to the cannabis chocolate enterprise.

"So this seems to be distribution on quite a large scale and, to some extent at least, the defendants may have benefited financially, although the Crown does not claim this was their main motivation."

During a police interview, Mr Gibson admitted sending 22,000 bars to addresses around the world. But first they had sought proof that the recipients were MS sufferers.

The jury was told that Mrs Gibson suffers from MS.

A juror who made it known to the judge that she had a relative in the family with MS was told this was no bar to deciding guilt or innocence in the case.

The trial, expected to last seven days, continues.

The facts, man

Cannabis is derived from Cannabis sativa or Cannabis indica, a plant related to nettles and hops that is thought to have originated in India

The first written account of cannabis use can be found in Chinese records dating from 2800BC.

Herbal (grass, weed, skunk) is the dried flower buds of the plant; resin (hash, soapbar, black) is the buds formed into a block and then heated and crumbled before use; oil is by far the strongest form and made by dissolving, filtering and evaporating the resin

The main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC
Source: Times database

[oldtown] 24/2/2006 09:20

Lock the drug dealing scum up!

[stasis] 25/9/2005 04:36

Now most of those sick people will now be either experiencing increased suffering or be funding drug dealers! -GREAT EH?


It's a rhyme that bites.

[tonystringy] 24/8/2005 20:02

Maybe the header's not catchy enough?

-Shame that. I know Leslie personally and that woman deserves a medal for all the hard work she's done. Sadly this case is now taking it's toll on her.

With her 'cannachoc' medication she leads a pretty normal life (you wouldn't know she was ill unless you were told), without it she usually ends up wheelchair bound and has to wear a nappy........some justice!!!

[andrew_george] 14/1/2004 12:46

Does anyone know if we will get any money back with this share ???
I heard that Topnotch had considerable funds at the time of administration...

If anyone has a track record of holding shares that go bust perhaps they can tell us what usually happens.

thanks.

[sore loser] 14/10/2003 13:35

From "Market Miscellany" section of the Sunday Telegraph (Business) November 2000:

"Having been as high as 201.5p earlier this year, shares in THC, the AIM-quoted leisure business, have crashed to a low of 82.5p. The company issued a statement on Friday noting the downward movement in the share price. It insists the fall has nothing to do with the trading outlook for the company but instead has been caused by an instiution selling shares acquired when it merged with another fund management group. Topnotch, a newcomer to the quoted leisure market, is trading in line with expectations. The company recently bought 5 clubs from rival Cannons for £1.7m. Half-year results due out in January are not expected to dissapoint having reported a £130,000 loss in its maiden results. The company is undervalued. BUY."

Funny old world......

[sore loser] 29/9/2003 11:54

Any news on this bow-wow?

Will the shareholders get owt?

[tiredoldbroker] 09/9/2003 17:44

8 SEPTEMBER 2003



Topnotch health clubs plc

("Topnotch" or "the Company")


APPOINTMENT OF ADMINISTRATOR


The board of Topnotch announces that as a result of the failure to complete the
negotiations regarding the restructuring of the Company, application has been
made to the High Court for the appointment of an Administrator to the Company
and Top Notch Health Limited, one of its subsidiaries. Such application was
approved and accordingly RSM Robson Rhodes has today been appointed.

[tiredoldbroker] 09/9/2003 17:43

8 SEPTEMBER 2003



Topnotch health clubs plc

("Topnotch" or "the Company")


APPOINTMENT OF ADMINISTRATOR


The board of Topnotch announces that as a result of the failure to complete the
negotiations regarding the restructuring of the Company, application has been
made to the High Court for the appointment of an Administrator to the Company
and Top Notch Health Limited, one of its subsidiaries. Such application was
approved and accordingly RSM Robson Rhodes has today been appointed.

[josephrobert] 05/8/2003 15:38

Price found support at 2.5pence.
Price is set to rise beyond the medium term resistance at 3.2pence.
Price is supported by RSI; RSI has formed a new, sharply rising and wide channel.
So keep holding.

[tomgiles] 02/8/2003 21:48

This stock rose a little while ago but now appears to have fallen back.It is diwn as a sell on the FT wevbsite but I'm a member of the gym and I think that it is good value and they have a great concept.

I was going to put a few quid into this but the spread is a horrendous 33%,anyone got any info on this one?.

[bebop101] 23/7/2003 20:44

If you are looking for a quick profit get into IDN, Profit set to be announced next Wednesday.... watch em fly



Barry Bopp

[responsible lad] 18/7/2003 00:42

Do not buy, these people paid only 2.5p for them last week.

[stewjames] 18/7/2003 00:30

It looks more very high risk/low-medium reward to me. Even if they DO agree short term facilities what are you left with? A loss-making company in a highly competitive sector with a current NAV of approx 1.5M (at most) and eroding fast.

BTW, you only got my waspish reply because of your posting on an entirely unrelated thread. Please don't do that!

[opthalmist] 18/7/2003 00:22

Stew - correct. They are close to concluding new arrangements. The highest rewards usually come with the riskier shares, and I agree that this is a gamble.
You take your chance, or watch from the sidelines.

[dell314] 18/7/2003 00:17

Stew - well said!
I'd have thought the Holmes Place fiasco would have been enough warning and that had a damn good NAV.....

Rgds
dell