Ireland puts medical cannabis back on the agenda

Following the launch of Ireland’s first medical cannabis council earlier this month, campaigners are ready to put cannabis back on the agenda.

A new lobby group is bringing together some of Ireland’s most prominent campaigners to fight for long-awaitied access to medical cannabis.

Founded by leading advocates including Tom Curran, Gino Kenny, Vera Twomey and Alicia Maher, the Irish Medicinal Cannabis Council (IMCC), which launched in November, is focused on reducing stigma and improving education around cannabis in the medical profession and beyond.

The fight for access to medical cannabis has been ongoing for around a decade in Ireland, with campaigners describing a series of ‘false starts’ leaving the country lagging behind the rest of the world.

Around 40 patients – including Vera Twomey’s daughter 11-year-old Ava Barry, have been granted a Government license to import medical cannabis – but must travel overseas to access it.

In June 2019, the Medical Cannabis Access Programme was introduced, allowing consultants to prescribe to patients who have failed to respond to treatments for MS, intractable nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy and severe, refractory epilepsy.

However, so far no one has been prescribed cannabis through the scheme, with what is thought to be thousands of patients accessing it illicitly.

The first job of the IMCC will be to put cannabis back on the agenda among the nation’s leading politicians and legislators, Tom Curran told Cannabis Health.

“Medical cannabis hasn’t been on the agenda for years, so that will be our first priority, followed by showing the legislators how much it benefits people in other countries, as well as here,” said Tom, who became well-known for his advocacy after helping his late wife Marie Fleming access cannabis to treat her MS.

“There’s been 40 import licences given – if 40 people can benefit from it, there has to be hundreds or thousands of others that can benefit as well, so why is access denied to them?

“As a country there have been so many false starts, the idea of the group is to bring everybody together to finally get this over the line.”

As well as an education programme for medical professionals, the IMCC will be working to reduce the stigma associated with cannabis, which is still classed as a schedule one drug in Ireland, and often compared to heroin, cocaine and benzodiazepines.

“We’re one of the few countries in the world where cannabis is viewed as a more dangerous drug than heroin,” Tom continued.

“Politicians aren’t willing to tackle it because of the stigma – 10 years ago that would have been a valid point, because there was very little knowledge –  but since then the rest of the world has moved on.

“We failed to get over that hurdle. We didn’t provide the information that was necessary to change the politician’s minds and it became an issue that they just ignored.”

Earlier this year, the Irish Government did step in to facilitate the delivery of cannabis-based medicines for the 40 patients and their families who were suddenly unable to travel abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the Health Services Executive (HSE) has recently confirmed that this arrangement will stop once restrictions are lifted.

While campaigners are calling for this to be extended, they ultimately want to see a system where patients can access their medicine in their home country.

“If our health department had acted in the way they said they would, there would be no need for the licencing system because the process would be in place for patients to access their medicine here in Ireland,” said Tom.

“We should be looking long-term, to make these licenses unnecessary and medical cannabis available to all patients who need it.”

He added: “We have hundreds, if not thousands of people using cannabis who are currently breaking the law. There’s no reason that any patient should have to break the law to get relief from the symptoms of whatever illness they have.”