Lending support to the Medicinal Cannabis Bill

A MEMBER of the Kilkee Cannabis Club has written to the county’s four TDs, asking them to support the Medicinal Cannabis Bill, which is to be debated in Dáil Éireann today (Thursday). The Dáil will study the report on Scrutiny of the Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016.

John O’Regan is backing Ireland’s Cannabis Party in its fast protest outside Leinster House from today up to November 16, in support of the Medicinal Cannabis Bill. Organisers say the fast is being held to highlight the need for medicinal cannabis to be legalised and regulated.

Mr O’Regan, who lives on the Kilrush Road in Kilkee, said, “It is our intention to highlight the desperate plight that parents with sick children face. One such person was even contemplating a hunger strike to try to help their child. This fast is intended to remind people of the lengths a parent might go to, if their child is denied a medicine due to the failure of our politicians to legalise and regulate the medicinal cannabis industry in Ireland.

“As things stand, people are forced to break the law and face prison for helping a sick friend. We need a regulatory body with standardised testing techniques, so that patients can tell exactly what they are getting.

“This very topic is being discussed by members of the Kilkee Cannabis Club and may form part of a research proposal for the Health Products Regulation Authority. None of this can happen without your support of the Bill,” his letter to the county’s deputies stresses.

Last July, the Oireachtas Health Committee threw out a Bill from People Before Profit’s Gino Kenny, which aimed to legalise medicinal cannabis. The health committee said the Bill posed “major legal issues, unintended policy consequences and a lack of safeguards against harmful use of cannabis by patients”.