A bill tabled in the Dáil in July has put the issue back on the political agenda and this week Dublin prepares to host a global summit on medical marijuana. But Irish patients who want to use the drug to alleviate their symptoms are still in limbo.
In 1839, Limerick-born physicist William O'Shaughnessy was credited as the first expert to introduce cannabis to Western medicine after researching its benefits in Calcutta. His second trip to India saw him knighted by Queen Victoria and dubbed the "grandfather of cannabis research".
Almost 175 years later, a promising comedian by the name of Aodhrua Fitzgerald was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer at the age of 19. Before his death at the age of 21, Fitzgerald was open about his use of medical cannabis to alleviate his symptoms.
Source: independent.ie, 12/09/2016