Sunday Independent August 16 2009
A Irishman suffering from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) can’t come home because his medication includes cannabis-based drugs.
Noel McCullagh, originally from Ballinasloe, Co Galway, has been told by the Irish authorities that he will be arrested if he attempts to bring his legally prescribed medication, Bediol and Bedrocan, prescribed in Holland, into Ireland.
The social inclusion unit of the HSE have told the 33-year-old that he will be arrested if he attempts to come home to his family for a visit with the medication.
But Noel McCullagh is adamant that he is not making a ‘political football’ of the issue; his life is at stake. Without the medication he is crippled with pain, at risk of convulsive seizures, and in danger of a deadly bout of encephalitis, which took the life of his baby sister Carmen.
Mr McCullough, a journalist who lives in Holland, previously required a walking stick to get around, but thanks to his medication he now cycles everywhere, and he swims 2km a day.
Appeals to the Minister for Health, the HSE, and dozens of politicians of all persuasions have fallen on deaf ears.
“I have been inside the police cordon, with a television crew putting questions to Brian Cowen, while taking my medication in Brussels, but I wasn’t allowed to come to Ireland to cover the Lisbon Treaty referendum,” he says.
Mr McCullagh has charted every element of his battle with the Irish authorities to be allowed return home and visit his parents Michael (70) and Ann (66), in Ballinasloe, Co Galway.
“It is 1,104 days now, every night and every morning, three times Christmas, and three of my mother’s birthdays. It is very distressing for me on an ongoing basis. It plays on my mind a lot.
“Three years ago, when I first got in contact with the Department of Health I was given the complete runaround and one official even said to me, ‘can you not leave the Jamaican woodbines with the prossies in Amsterdam?’
“Even though this medication is prescribed and managed by my neurologist I’m still not welcome with it in Ireland,” Mr McCullagh says.
“I want to be very clear that I am not campaigning for cannabis or the legalisation of cannabis. I am on the strongest cannabis ever engineered by man and it is only prescribed as a last resort alternative for people with Aids, cancer, chronic spinal injuries, Crohn’s disease and MS. It’s prescribed as a medicine and anyone who thinks there is some advantage in this should be careful what they wish for,” he says.
Replying to a parliamentary question from Joe Costello TD on January 27 this year, Minister of Health Mary Harney said: “As the law currently stands, however, it would not be possible for a cannabis extract to be licensed here for medicinal use or for a doctor to prescribe it.
“There are no exemptions or exceptions applicable. Any person entering the country with medicinal cannabis could be charged under the Misuse of Drugs Act with unauthorised possession and I do not intend to change the law in this regard.”
This week a spokesman for the Department of Health reiterated the minister’s position as set out in the Dail.
“Currently, cannabis is included in Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act as it is regarded as having no medicinal use and its possession, sale, importation etc is prohibited — not by Social Inclusion Unit — but by the law of the land. The Department of Justice has responsibility on the Schengen issue,” according to the Health Department spokesman.
– JOHN WHELAN
REPLY TO MS SOCIETY 12 SEPT 2008
http://tinyurl.com/n86s4n
15 JAN 2009 ; HAWKS’ HOUSE DUBLIN
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & CHILDREN
(Asst. Principal, Mary O’Reilly, Dublin Social Inclusion Unit)
to MS Society of Ireland CEO.
| This letter is the 1st reply to the letter above of 12 SEPT 2008 |
and so much for An Aras … that woman’s supposed to be a patron to all-Irish living with MS….
SO: How is this permitted to just go on and on … how can people sleep so soundly in their beds at night … each and every night, night after night.
It’s been 1108 now… tomorrow it will be 1109… well, at least something is ‘for sure’.
noel
…
ok … well here is the answer from Social Inclusion Unit in Dublin : 4 months condensed into just a hot, sunny afternoon.
I am a patient of MS and I receive good treatment here, from the Dutch peoples.
My medical matters … they are supposed to be private.
Mary O’Reilly is not a physician, and she has never ever once examined me of had any manner of contact with any of my physicians.
Why is Mary O’Reilly dealing with me and my physicians’ attorneys “via” the MS Society?
Why does she constantly refuse to contact me, in person?
Why does she refuse to contact my attorneys, or me?
Am I deserved of the title: person?
Her responsibilities, those of the Social Inclusion Unit in Dublin, are below:
Responsibilities
* HIV/AIDS
* Homeless Adults
* Prisoners
* Sexually-Transmitted Disease Carries
* Asylum Seekers
* Co-ordination of Social Partnership Programme
* Health Inequalities in Poverty
* Illegal Drugs / Addiction Methadone
* Travellers
* NAPS (National Anti-Poverty Strategy)
* Voluntary Activity Unit (Poverty Plan)
* Equality and Diversity issues –draw up a strategy
My Schengen Medial Certificate is produced in The Hague.
I require nothing from this person. In the Schengen rules, the competent authority in Article 75 Certification to carry medicines containing narcotics is only for the national country.
In other words, the competent authority (named the United Nations in a letter to me) is Social Inclusion Unit.
they are there to issue Schengen Medical Certificates to Irish people living in Ireland.
I do not live there, and as such… the only thing I require from Social Inclusion Unit is to renounce their threats, made in numerous letters, that they will effect my arrest if I go to Ireland to see my Mum and Dad in Ballinasloe.
I would much rather she would just stop victimising me … and let me go about my business as a non-convicted criminal European Union resident.
Surely, everyone deserves that?
You should read this one too … it dates approx one year before the Mary O’Reilly letter from Social Inclusion.
http://bit.ly/3mvjDM
IT’s one or two pages, but it is much more to the point (April 2008).
I’m very sorry, Noel.
An awfull and deeply sad situation you’re trapped in, as are your parents.
And others.
Even without travelling, that policy on the Schengen Acquis endangering (your) life-situation(s), due to the stress it causes.
Hope at least you’ll find the answers needed to that reality. Do take very good (care) of yourself.
Wishing you all the best.
–
and here is another letter from the
MS Society of Ireland’s, C.E., Mr Joe Cahill,
of September 12th, 200……..8.
http://tinyurl.com/n3fxlu
For the record: I had not, btw, received a copy of this writing before the letter itself was dispatched to the Dept of H&C on my behalf …
….. Would anyone here like to know the answer from the Mary O’Reilly Unit at the Social Inclusion Force, Department of Health and Children at Hawks’ House, Dublin 2 ?
…. the answer to this organisation of whom I have never once ever laid eyes upon a living member thereof?
In my life?
Thank you Schengen.
Y’know, I really have to emphasise some important points….. hopefully, for the last and final time.
Law does not matter to the Irishér Department of Health and Children, and especially not to the Social Inclusion Unit thereof…
… I cannot be more specific than that.
I have an attorney, I used to teach the English-language to law students of the Royal university… for five years.
Many of those students are now young aspirant attorneys…. throughout the globe would you believe it?
Here is the most recent communication to the Social Inclusion Unit : it was never answered.
From my experience dealing directly with the private individuals occupying official positions within the public health service, theirs is not a motivation of “man-made laws” : no.
They answer only to a higher authority : one of morals and religious beliefs.
In their cosmology, “law” is irreverent when one is dealing with heathens.
My attorneys, or any attorneys for that matter, all have a postal code registered in the country that permits, quote: “Homo-sexual marriage, assisted suicide, toleration of drug-addicts, and your Amsterdam ‘abortion-boat’. And if you think that the kinds of things that are allowed by ‘those people’ are ever going to be allowed here, then you can think again Mr McCullagh” End Quote + immediate termination of telephone connection.
That was three years ago.
This letter, from a year-and-a-half-ago, from my attorneys at BFKW on the Kaizer’s Canal,
http://www.bfkw.nl/advocaten/bohler-e.html has never received any reply of substance.
http://bit.ly/Qv7yh
Noel
Hello Schengen : Yes, I’ve heard of the Montesquieu-institute.
…named after Charles Montesquieu (1689-1755), French philosopher and founder of the paradigm of the separation of the legislative, the judiciary and the executive powers (the Trias Politica), necessary for creating a healthy balance of power between the various constitutional bodies.
{ on an different note : check out this new blog post of mine on the procedures of the Irish that the Montesquieu Ins deals with…
http://tumblr.com/xip2qa63l [it’s got video too of my asking this very question to
Mr Cyin’ n Bowin’ too }
It is rather unfortunate that this is happening : all of the legal framework is in place, the laws are already being applied in various and far-reaching fields.
Take for example that part of the Schengen Convention that Ireland and the UK signed up to : Police and Judicial Cooperation.
The Schengen has been used no end by the Irish Police, because through Schengen, they got for themselves the right to confiscate property of suspected Irish criminals — but property that was not existing on the republic of Ireland. Those are called extra-jurisdictional rights of search and seizure.
There are many many aspects of Schengen being applied all throughout the Republic of Ireland. Look at this link: it’s the Garda Siochana (Police Force) Annual Report from 2002.
The Commissioner is very clear : skip to page 44 :
TO THE MINISTER FOR JUSTICE, EQUALITY & LAW REFORM
2002 Annual Report An Garda Siochana – By Commission of An Garda Siochana NOEL CONROY
http://bit.ly/4EUzkw
“Further information can be obtained on the Europol web-site http://www.europol.eu.int
SCHENGEN
Ireland ratified the Schengen Acquis on 28th February, 2002, making provision for greater police cooperation
between the seventeen Schengen Member States. A key benefit for An Garda Síochána will be
direct access to the Schengen Information System (SIS). This system facilitates the electronic transfer of
alerts between the Member States regarding wanted persons, missing persons, stolen vehicles & objects.
The Schengen implementation project is now well underway and considerable Garda resources in terms of personnel, I.T. and training will be required for successful SIS integration.
A national Schengen single point of contact to be known as the Sirene Office will be established and will be based in Liaison & Protection Section. The Sirene Offices will operate round the clock and serve to communicate directly with the other Schengen Member State Sirene Offices.”
In fact if you look at the 2004 Annual Report, you even see in detail how much money the milked the EU for on this part of Schengen Convention… they even got Brussels to build them a new building too.
Those annual reports, though, they have taken them off line now since I started to ask awkward questions about where all the Schengen access funds went).
The Irish even “Chaired” a meeting of the Schengen Sirene Police Leaders in 2004 … that was the year that the eastern states joined the EU.
Those states “had to” join Schengen… while all the time EU President Bertie was taking money from Europe to set up new systems … and they (the Irish) hadn’t even ratified the god damns laws.
And now that a lowly citizens wants to use one aspect of the Schengen rules … its No! No! No! … Ian Paisley would have a hard job matching up to the “NO!ness” of those Republique der Irishé of the present day.
http://bit.ly/4EUzkw
http://www.everaert.nl/
Noel, reading your information made me ask if you’re familiar with that Dutch Montesquieu-instituut?
If not, maybe its worth trying?
Good luck to you and your parents.
http://www.montesquieu-instituut.nl/9353000/1/j9vvhfxcd6p0lcl/vh1alz099lwi
Hello everyone and thank you for your kind words in script from 1000s of kilometres away.
My major concern is not the Netherlands law, the exemption and approval of the United Nations International Narcotics Board in VIENNA… nor their querying the legality (and consequent compensation for victimisation at the hands of a demented state) …
…no
…my major concern is the loss in the ideals of the Society in Ireland …
As you all know, I emigrated in 1998 because I was a good student in St Patrick’s at Maynooth. I was given three choices for my Erasmus scholars seat in Europe: Tolledo in Spain, Upsalla in Sweden or Groningen in Netherlands.
I always liked to cycle, and when I did the math on the consumer index for exxemtial household items: Netherlands came up trumps.
Plus, I figured back in Ballinasloe, i would save about 500 ECUs (the prototype Euro that was handed out in European Union educational grants) … because cycling to school would mean not having to buy a monthly travel card (Madrid and Upsallsa).
So, I have watched from afar as the economy degraded into a bubble … I even reported on it (as did a very few Irishes journalists) as far back as 2006. I can tell you : that did not go down with with the Irish mafia, and especially that Drumcondra variety-show … even more so, because the ‘reach’ of our media here … is 9 languages in 11 European countries…from Spanish to Russian.
What concerns me is the drift away from core values in the Irish Society… the greed.
There is one very , so-called vital and exxential, trait to the legislative approach of the Republic of Ireland… and that is the Family.
For better or for worse, the Roman Catholic State that is the Irish Republic – has jumped through hoops and walked on fire to protect this Constitutional imperitive in ways that would make stateswo/men of other nations gawk in awe.
The Family … and not just any family, no. Thé “Irish” family … of a kind that is protected like no other on earth … by the very thing that is impeding and upholding the progression of the integration of our European Union :
“Das neunzehn achtunddreißig Bundes Recht der Iren,
or in the local gamut : 1938 Bunrecht na hEireann.
I am seriously concerned about the violations to this Treaty of the Irish
namely: that which deals with the private relationship between me and my biological mother.
If this treaty means something … then why was I not aborted during gestation… why didn’t my mother Ann McCullagh (néé Winters of Kilmore Quay, Wexford) not have an abortion back in 1976?
At least, that would have brought about the situation that Mary O’Reilly, the Ass. Principal of the Social Inclusion Unit of Dublin Metropolis, has to time and time again perform acts that are totally repugnant to this nineteen thirty-eight “Constitution of an Irish wo/man” …
what a total disgrace !
shame on them, the horror, the horror,
the horror.
+++++++++++++++++++++
1938 BUNREACHT NA hÉIREANN
{Das 1938 Busdes Reacht von der Iren}
aka:
“CONSTITUTION” OF AN IRISH
Enacted by the Irish 1st July, 1937
In operation as from 29th December, 1937
+++++FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS++++++
+The Family+
Article 41
1. 1° The State recognises the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law.
I ask you Mary O’Reilly, for all I know Sister Mary O’Reilly, of the Sisters of Mercy Roman Catholic Order of Jesus’ Brides:
– What gives you the god-damned right to come between me and my only mother, from whose own belly I came forth into this world?
Do you have any children of your own: no!
You should have all aborted me, you cruel and wicked people….sent my mother on the postal boat to England, for them to do your dirty-work for you … at least that way I would not be suffering needlessly and for no legal reason … on a minute-to-minute basis this 1107 days past.
Ever since the day they told me I would
die a young death.
You are evil & you are cruel, and you are committing acts of
“clinically-identifiable, and recorded,
-negligence”.
Noel
This message was sent to me via e-mail. As it is support of Noel, I feel it appropriate to post it here.
The way I look at this is pain is pain and any drug should be used to ameliorate the suffering of a patient especially when it is after all a natural substance why it cant be legal I do not know surely the well being of the suffering should be paramount well done Paddy once again you are supporting a good cause
If you declare yourself to be a free sovereign human being, then you are no longer under their man made laws.
Marijuana is declared illegal by whom?
Just who decided they have the power of creator to decide what is legal and what is not?
Legal has nothing to do with Natural Law though….so let these so called clever people go off and tell the Universe that they now have all this power and let us observe and see what happens to them and their power.
Yes, the medical Mafia who make bigger profits from chemical drugs which are not natural and do plenty of harm to human bodies.
Creator provided natural medicine free for every dis-ease on this planet.
Noel, you are seen by your Government as a resource- and if you check the HSE- you will find yourself documented under Department of Human Resources.
Ok, how about this. Fly in via another country and they will be caught off guard. They did say if you came from Holland I believe, but they did not say another country. Am I right? Off you go home now and see the parents.
Ok how about this. Fly in through another country and they be caught off guard. They did say “FROM HOLLAND” not another country
Yes Noel, you are right with every point you make, and shame on us all. I can hear you’re angry and you have all my sympathy. I know you’ll continue your campaign and I’ll join you in that. In the meantime and while you get the outcome you seek, I hope that you can separate the Campaign itself, from your very own and immediate needs, and find a satisfactory compromise for yourself…! Maybe you can see your family tomorrow! Good luck. Raymond
Yes, it is truly a painful thing… what I am being forced to go through without, apparently, any manner of address beyond that of the public press. Even the postal replied take three or four months per reply.
Surely everyone is aware that the legal expenses have all but bankrupted me. It’s been three years! Ever since the very day I was diagnosed. As if with serious illness I’ve not already got enough on my plateto manage… like, getting on with my own life?
Does this small department in the Health Ministry, the Social Inclusion Unit, think this to be all to the benefit of my medical welfare and wellbeing? C’mon !~? That is insane!
I wish to stress that in no way can “Ireland” be held responsible for the situation. There is but one individual official who has been dealing with this issue since 2006… just one.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It’s a real shame that this individual, who is neither a jurist nor a medical practitioner, but instead to my information a Roman Catholic Nun, is the sole individual perpetrating this inhumane situation … and that this person or her colleagues go on record stating something they know to be an untruth is a disgrace.
The Dept. of Justice has repeatedly, time and time again, informed both me and this person that matters relating to Article 75 are an issue for the Dept of Health and Children : http://tinyurl.com/krprjk :
just as is the case in all EU states where that refers to the Schengen “Medical” Certificate provided for in Article 75 for transport of drugs and/or psychotropic substances);
Ass-Principal, Social Inclusion, Ms O’Reilly claims time and time again this past three years that “Schengen” is not valid for Ireland…
She says “YES”, Minister of Justice, John O’Donoghue TD, signed a request to partake in 28 FEB 2002
but that administration in Ireland has not yet “ratified” it…. how sweet and charming.
I asked Brian Cowen about this in person at the Consilium’s European Council summit on June 19th in Brussels… and he called implementation of a Treaty act signed more than 7 years ago as a “political matter” … as he looked sideways out of this squinty eyes at the incumbent Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael Martin.
I regularly use the urinal next to this person, this Foreign Minister of Ireland, Michael Martin. Y’know? After the press conferences, we’ve usually been kept waiting long over time… then the pressers last up to 30 mins. When they are over, I head straight for the WC … and that is exactly the same for your Foreign Minister.
Brian did not look all that happy for Michael Martin, perhaps he likes to think that it is Michael’s fault, while Michael thinks its Mary’s fault, while Mary insists it is Dermot’s fault … and all the while the days are clocking, clocking, clocking… well now its 1107 : so how many more?
Until I am fit to finally travel home to see my Mum and my Dad, feet-first … with a wooden jacket? Is that what Ms Mary O’Reilly wants to see happening … over my dead body? Well, that is how it appears to me.
———— What’s the real situation?
…….What the Irish Social Inclusion Force in Dublin City, and Mary O’Reilly in particular, seem not to understand is that the Schengen Medical Certificate
is merely a ‘transposition to European Law’ of even further-reaching ‘International Law’ under the Single Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, where that the freedom of movement and patients rights therein (regardless of physical disability and/or handicap).
The UNITED NATIONS Economic and Social Council ; 1234th Meeting, 15 April 2003
-CND Resolution 46/6- Provisions regarding travellers under medical treatment with drugs containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances under international control
http://bit.ly/K749r
====================
And, to clarify something else also … the medicines Bediol® and Bedrocan©® : those medicines are not “licensed in another country” as Mary O’Reilly has frequently written in her communications to the MS Society …. they are “licensed by the United Nations” : International Narcotics Control Board in UN Buildings VIENNA AUSTRIA.
That makes their licence valid for all signatories of the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 as amended by the United Nations 1972 Protocol Amending the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.
===========
What is being asked here is that these people “do nothing” … that they “spend no more money and funds” on this issue and that they recognise international law, and desist from threatening me with arrest should I attempt to see Mum and Dad.
I want to go home tomorrow for God’s Sake.
Tonight I will go to sleep again, and tomorrow it shall be the 1108th day… next Friday it shall be the 1112th and so on and so forth. How long are people content to see one individual official in their government, calling and harassing and threatening the life out of an already traumatised person : who is not an Irish resident, and not a subject of Mary-Harney-health-regeim either.
I am a tourist. That has nothing to do with me, or any other Dutch, Belgian, German Austrian Italian tourist who is prescribed immuno-supressive Bediol and Bedrocan.
——————–“Cead Mhile Falty”
…… If this is how Ireland treats it’s own sons and daughters who wish to support the home economy by bringing a months paypacket to spend in the local East Galway vicinity …. May the heavens above help you all : you need it more than I.
====== MINISTERIAL LETTER=====
From:
Office of Medicinal Cannabis
Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Ref.: Kingdom of the NETHERLANDS Serves Formal NOTICE under 1961 Single Convention on narcotic drugs and Psychotropic substances
-Documentation Section, 15 December 2000
To:
INCB + Vienna International Centre
Room E 1339, P.O. Box 500
A 1400 VIENNA, AUSTRIA.
REF.:GMV/BMC 2133509 / 15 December 2000
Dear Sir, Madam.
Hereby I inform the United Nations’ International Narcotics Control Board about the establishment of a National Agency according to article 28 of the 1961 Single Convention on narcotic drugs in the Netherlands. The Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport of the Netherlands will act as a National agency for the European territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1 January, 2001 on. On behalf of this Minister the task of the National agency will be executed by the Office of Medicinal Cannabis (Bureau voor Medicinale Cannabis).
The goals of the Office are to determine whether cannabis can be used as a medicine and for which indications. Many case reports indicate that cannabis may be useful as a medicine, but there is no high level evidence available yet. If clinical studies provide positive results, adequate supply of licensed cannabis products to the pharmaceutical market should be ensured. From that moment on this will be another task of the Office.
The Office will act as a regulator for the horticulture of cannabis, cannabis resin and their preparations and for clinical trials with these substances, as required by the Single Convention on narcotic drugs. It will also stimulate high quality trials that can be done with several dosage forms of varying composition and for multiple indications. It has a scientific advisory board with as members health care inspectors specialized in clinical trials and in narcotics, a neurologist, a pharmacognosist, a lawyer and representatives of the Multiple Sclerosis Patients Association and the HIV Patients Association.
By letter of 28 July 1998, Ref FMT-CT-U-986185, my Chief Inspectorate for Health Care informed you about the plans to establish a National agency. The Board reacted by facsimile of 23 September 1998 that it has no objection. This is in accordance with the recent call in the INCB annual report 1998 and the call of the President of the Board at the forty-third session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs that serious research on the possible medical uses of cannabis must be done.
As required by the Single Convention our National Agency will be monopolist in importing and exporting, wholesale and stock keeping of cannabis, cannabis resin and their preparations. It will also be the licensing authority for these substances. Growers should obligatory and exclusively sell to the National agency. These responsibilities of the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport will be mandated to the Office of Medicinal Cannabis.
The postal address of the Office will be:
Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport
Department of Pharmaceutical Affairs
Office of Medicinal Cannabis
P.O. Box 25350
2500 EJ THE HAGUE
Importing and exporting of the Office will be accompanied by an authorization or certificate of the Competent National Authority. This authority continues to be at the Inspectorate of Health Care of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. One task of the Office of Medicinal Cannabis is the supply of medicinal grade cannabis to manufacturers and clinicians. The Office will order the cannabis from private growers. Preventing leakage of cannabis to illicit markets is important, therefore growers will be contracted under certain conditions only. The Dutch law requires licenses of those who grow cannabis. The Office will give these licenses on behalf of the Minister of Health. Only growers who are contracted by the Office will be licensed. Growers will be screened before they are contracted. Among the conditions of the contract will be that contractors sell their total crops to the Office and that any remainder will be destroyed. Of course growers will be frequently visited by the narcotics specialist of the Health Care Inspectorate for inspecting the Opium Law and by staff members of the Office for checking the conditions of the contract to prevent leakage to illicit markets.
Development of a new medicine – in this particular case from cannabis – is generally an international concern. This is the reason that the Netherlands will co-operate with other countries. Several countries have indicated during the last months, that they are working on the same subject. The Dutch Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport will consider any requests for delivery of medicinal cannabis to other countries. Delivery will only take place with explicit approvement from the authorities of these countries in compliance with the procedures of the Single Convention.
The production of medicinal cannabis and the manufacturing of the finished medicinal products will be a matter of private enterprises and regulated by the requirements of the Single Convention. The difference with other medicines will be that the Dutch Office of Medicinal Cannabis is charged with the specific aspects in the production chain as importing and exporting, wholesale and stock keeping of cannabis.
E. Borst-Eilers MD PhD
Minister of Health, Wellbeing & Sport
[And “Yes”, she is a MD – medical doctor – and the minister-at-government]
ref.:
http://www.cannabisbureau.nl/ImportExport/Buitenlandsepatintenenbedrijven/
This shows once more, that we have our priorities completely wrong. Without compassion and understanding for a very clear-cut and simple case such as this, there is no hope that we can come up with right, ethical and morally-correct solutions to the crisis facing the country; just as I believe that the MOST important issue facing us now arise from the Ryan’s Report. It is painful and enraging, to see and hear even our most sympathetic media personalities, discuss the economy, the government, Nama ad nauseum, as if all of it was not a DIRECT result of the mind-set which resulted in the atrocities brought to light by the Report.
That’s amazing. They turn a blind eye to most of the drug lords who are selling to the young people on the streets of Ireland and they wouldn’t let this man take his medication home with him to visit his parents. Shame on you Mary Harney
This piece appeared in “The Irish Times” some years ago when my doctor – a prominent neurologist sought to prescribe Marijuana under medical supervision. The Irish Minister for Health and the Minister for Justice refused his request.
“Beside it hangs a droll Oscar Wilde quotation: “I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.” This week, Doyle found himself in the eye of a media storm that was sensational even by Wildean standards. His widely-publicised appeal to be allowed to use marijuana to ease his often violent spasms, one of the symptoms of his incurable medical condition, has added a dimension to what is an increasingly thorny debate.
The Dubliner, a former winner of the People Of The Year award, has suffered with idiopathic torsion dystonia since the age of nine. “I have tried everything,” he says. “Marijuana could be beneficial to me. I should be allowed to try it under medical supervision.” The controversy began when Doyle, severely physically disabled as a result of his condition, recently visited a consultant for a routine check-up. When the consultant saw him he was dismayed by the high level of involuntary movement in Doyle’s body. He is constantly wracked by spasms – one expert concluded that a dystonia sufferer uses up as much energy daily as someone spending 16 hours in a gym.”