At the moment, people who use marijuana to relieve medical conditions face criminalisation, a €2,750 fine and up to 12 months in prison for a second offence.
In Co Meath, 60-year-old Darcy Petticrew grows cannabis to produce a tincture – 10 times stronger than the weed itself – that he ingests to relieve pain caused by a spinal-cord injury that has had him wheelchair-bound for 17 years. “Without it I cannot function; it’s that simple,” he says.
It is 13 years since Dr Orla Hardiman, a consultant neurologist working with people who suffer from multiple sclerosis, called for the legalisation of medicinal cannabis.
Yet today in Ireland, MS sufferers and others like Petticrew who wish to use cannabis to relieve symptoms face criminalisation, a €2,750 fine and up to 12 months in prison for a second offence.
A pharmaceutical spray containing cannabis extract, Satifex, is to be allowed for use by March, Minister of State for Health Alex White has said, but the medicinal use of cannabis will not be legalised.
The US has shown how, once discussion opened on the topic of marijuana legalisation, favourable opinion increased, first steadily, then rapidly.
There, support for legalisation jumped from 44 per cent in 2010 to 58 per cent last year.
Source: Kate Holmquist, Irish Times, 18/02/2014
Safer Student Nights
eBulletin
Poll
