Ireland's health minister wants to make the legalization of medical cannabis a priority for 2019

A progressive wind is blowing in Ireland. In June, the Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, announced the convening of a group of experts to consider the following issues the question of decriminalizing drugs. This week, the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, declared that he was committed to the legalization of medical cannabis in 2019 and wanted to see the industry based on local production. According to surveys dating from 2016, 81% of Irish people support the legalization of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

Irish medical cannabis

Ireland has been thinking about legalizing medical cannabis for some time: bills to introduce medical cannabis had already been submitted, experts had been called in to issue a report on the legalization of medical cannabis and exceptional authorizations were even granted to certain patients. This time, it looks like the government is determined to put a program in place. At least, that's the case with the Minister of Health, who said It's a major priority for me and I really want to see it happen in 2019.

The Minister of Health points out that this legalization does not concern recreational use, but «controlled and supervised use, with the support of the practitioner, of a product that can relieve pain and suffering after conventional treatments have failed». According to a 2017 survey, Approximately 598,000 people in Ireland suffer from chronic pain, and 20% of them live with severe or very severe pain. cannabis can help relieve.

The Minister explained that in order to get the program up and running quickly, Ireland would initially import products and cannabis from abroad, but that ultimately the aim was to be self-sufficient through domestic production by local farmers. «Obviously if we're going to have a compassionate program in this country, it's essential that we're able to monitor that program and know the quality of the products we're supplying to people (...) In the long term, talking about a domestic crop and securing our own supply in Ireland makes sense (...) When the time comes, I think it would be an opportunity for Irish farmers».