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A GROUP OF 20 doctors said a campaign of misinformation has led to a sharp increase in the number of cannabis users in Ireland, and warned against liberating the drug for recreational use.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last year confirmed a working group was considering decriminalising the drug and were reviewing jurisdictions such as Canada where cannabis use had already been legalised.
Senior doctors from the Cannabis Risk Alliance, however, said the dangers, including “increased risk of development of severe mental disorders, particularly psychosis,” were being ignored.
The group said the government was “sleepwalking” its way into supporting its use.
In a letter published in The Irish Times today, it said: “There is growing scientific data that indicates that cannabis use in young people is related to impairments to memory and thinking, which can endure long after cannabis use has ceased.
“Cannabis is now the most common drug involved in new treatment episodes at addiction services nationally.
“Cannabis is also the most common substance involved in drug-related admissions to our psychiatric hospitals.
“Cannabis smoke contains the same cocktails of carcinogens and toxins as tobacco smoke and therefore it must be assumed that it brings with it all the medical risks associated with smoking cigarettes.”
The letter suggests parties with a commercial and legislative agenda have “grossly distorted” the spread of information around the drug’s medicinal uses, and that use of the drug has increased due to “this propaganda campaign”.
“The proportion of people in Ireland who see it as harmless has doubled from 10.1% (2011) to 19.5% (2015),” it said.
The group has begun a campaign for an “unbiased examination of the evidence about cannabis use and cannabis-related health harms in Ireland and a comprehensive public education campaign”.
A Drug Use in Ireland and Northern Ireland study published last September revealed cannabis was the most commonly used illegal drug in the country.
It also found that among cannabis users, some 24% were classified as cannabis-dependent.
“Decriminalisation and ‘medicinal cannabis’ campaigns have proved to be effective Trojan horse strategies on the road to full legalisation and commercialisation elsewhere,” the doctors also stated in the letter
Such comments have angered medicinal cannabis campaigner Vera Twomey and TD Gino Kenny.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Sean O’Rourke programme today, Twomey said that she was “devastated” to read the comments of doctors who criticised “the one-sided debate on cannabis.”
Kenny said the doctors were conflating two issues – cannabis for medicinal use and cannabis for recreational use, which he added are two very separate matters.
Twomey told Dr Ray Walley, one of the authors of the letter, that her daughter Ava Barry who has severe epilepsy is now “thriving” in school, having been given a prescription for medicinal cannabis.
“She hasn’t been admitted to hospital in two years. Now she’s having a life free of pain,” she said.
Kenny described the language of the letter as “highly charged” stating that campaigners have fought hard to get medicinal cannabis on the agenda.
The People Before Profit TD said he too has concerns about corporations getting involved in the production and sale of medicinal cannabis. He said it should not be in the hands of corporations, but a State company.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie Explainer Podcast about whether Ireland will ever be able to grow cannabis for medicinal use, Health Minister Simon Harris said a State company could be the way forward in the future.
The Explainer / SoundCloud
With reporting by Christina Finn
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There is an adjoining report that Harris states that ‘you can’t pitch a tent anywhere you want’.
I have a question: when these tents are distributed, are those they are given to told where they can be pitched?
I have another: is there anywhere where they can be pitched that is acceptable to the government?
And who is paying for these tents anyway?
The government, via ‘charities’, on behalf of the taxpayer?
The government, which then destroys those tents within hours of distributing them?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: they are pitched up in Milltown now making camp.
@Sean Money: @Sean Money: Do you know if there is anywhere these can be pitched that is acceptable to the authorities?
If not, then why are these being distributed?
Are our government departments really *that* disfunctional?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: exactly they are in cahoots with the tent makers, millions spent on tents now
See this ffg governments will never and I mean never stop pollution of everything for profit ,
@Robert Halvey: Bet they sell the fish too!!
Slurry, I suppose. Farmers, I suppose.
The reason it was only reported yesterday is because nobody works the weekend
I don’t see pike on the list. Probably being killed off by the angling clubs. They kill pike all over Ireland seemingly with the blessing of the IFI. Taking out the predators leaves weak and sick fish to spawn. In turn making the fish sizes smaller in the rivers. You don’t take a predator out of a habitat
@Michael o Dwyer: it’s not the clubs killing them off, it’s the international fishing folk who clean out the rivers and lakes of every fish they get their hands on, no matter the size . They are a plague
@Michael o Dwyer: It’s more likely that it’s just a narrower river that doesnt contain pike. Of which there are many around the country
Pharmaceutical waste !
@sakk sa: irish water chemical leak at the water plant, either chlorine or fluoride
Hopefully the carcasses can be salvaged for food or even pet animal feed.
have your say