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JUNIOR HEALTH MINISTER Alex White has confirmed that he will sign off on the introduction of Savitex, a medicinal marijuana product, within days.
White said that he remains “hopeful” about signing the legislation tomorrow, but noted that it may be delayed until early next week.
The junior minister made the comments during an Oireachtas Health Committee meeting this morning.
On Monday, the Health Products Regulatory Authority CEO Pat O’Mahony said that sufferers of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) would soon be able to avail of the drug, once they get a prescription from their GP.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Seán O’Rouke, O’Mahony said:
This product is prescribed and dispensed for people with Multiple Sclerosis and it is very, very helpful for that cohort of patients for the muscle spasms that they suffer, which are a big complication of that condition.
Last month, White told TheJournal.ie that while he does not think Ireland is in a position to fully legalise cannabis, he keeps “a very close eye” on what’s happening internationally.
Additional reporting by Sinéad O’Carroll and Hugh O’Connell
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Why only for MS?
Because the backwards idiots cannot be seen to be forward thinking
I reckon this just the start of it. A year or two from now it could be available for all sorts of illnesses and hopefully back pains..
I would welcome that paperboy but the UK tells a darker story
Because the law has changed to allow this synthetic poison to be prescribed in Ireland, not actual cannabis.
Andrew Sativex is a cannabis tincture. It basically is cannabis not poison. That said we need the natural herb which is proven more effective
A close eye internationally? Always the followers never the leaders eh? Why can’t we just do what’s best for our citizens rather than worrying about what’s happening internationally and waiting for them to go first?
@Kevin we’ll never be allowed to grow our own naturally, while the medicinal benefit may be much greater, the aul pharma profits and tax intake are much more important (!)
I call it poison as it is not in its natural form, and is made with synthetic compounds. I doubt the THC extraction method would be particularly safe either. I have MS, but would never touch that or any other pharmaceutical concoction.
Amy whether allowed or not we will grow our own. The government will have to regulate cannabis as international and domestic pressure mounts
Sativex is a cannabis tincture which contains only 2 types of cannabinoid – Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), it also contains ethanol, propylene glycol and peppermint oil. I’ve used it and can confirm that it tastes more of alcohol than anything else.
Cannabis in its natural plant form has over 60 different types of cannabinoids, along with many terpenoids & flavonoids, which are also believed to contribute to its overall medicinal value and many medicinal cannabis users report that nothing works as well as the plant in its natural form, due to what’s known as ‘The Entourage Effect’ –
http://www.medicaljane.com/2014/05/14/thc-cbd-and-more-the-entourage-effect-of-whole-plant-cannabis-medicine/
Haha true. I got one would rather see more news about heroine hauls than cannabis.
Smoking ban
Andrew I am sorry to hear that you have MS. I don’t know what type you have or how bad your symptoms are, and I hope they’re not too bad but personally I have primary progressive since I was 33, 11 years now and at this stage I can honestly say there is very little I wouldn’t and haven’t tried out of sheer desperation. Take care
Hey Petrena,
I was diagnosed with relapsing/remitting MS in ’08. I am perfectly mobile and haven’t had any relapses in over a year…saying that, I’ll probably wake up feeling like crap tomorrow. Any time I say anything good about my health, my body seems to like to remind me how not in control I can be on occasion. MS can be a strange thing.
The only things I use for it are all natural supplements and healthy eating. They gave me information the day I was diagnosed, but I refused to even consider using medications and went straight to researching and asking people I knew, how to handle it as naturally as possible.
Hope you’re handling the summer okay. Take care.
Hi Andrew, If that’s working for you, keep it up! Hope you didn’t wake up feeling crap :) Look after yourself.
Have to keep the pharma boys happy. God forbid we could set a world precedence and show how to really reap every benefit of legalising the plant.
I believe that when British PM David Cameron’s father passed away he left David a lot of shares in GW Pharma! So we’ll have to keep the shareholders happy too, it would seem!
Should be legalised for sufferes of parkinsons and other such diseases
should be legalized for everybody
” he keeps a very close eye on what’s happening internationally ”
Can Ireland not think for it’s self ? When did we become ” one world “
It’s a good thing for ms patients , that’s enough for me .
And not one more piece of cannabis legislation was looked at again.
Not if Norml have something to say about it
I hope so Kev, thanks for your work.
Why is Marijuana Illegal? « Drug WarRant
http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal/
1913California, apparently, passes the first state marijuana law, though …. Again, racism was part of the charge against marijuana, as newspapers in 1934 …
To the tool that devises the headlines, Solpadeine isn’t medical opium poppies just like Sativex isn’t medical cannabis.
Well said Jay. Up until now the journal have been relatively balanced in their reporting
Very misleading headline Orla. Everyone needs to know this isn’t cannabis in its natural form and ‘medical marijuana’ is been turned into a monopoly. This will be nothing like American medical cannabis legalisation
Also please use cannabis instead of marijuana. The word has a dark racial history.
Does ‘natural form’ refer to smoking?
Because I’m sure many doctors wouldn’t be be wanting to encourage that. It makes perfect sense, since this is a medicine for it to be produced in a form that only contains the beneficial parts for the patient. and makes it less desirable for those wishing to use it recreationally.
Claire first off cannabis can be vaporised or digested which are the recommended medical applications in America.
Furthermore it is better to legalise recreational users than leave them to buy off criminal gangs, colorado has proved this works.
Sativex has been proven less effective than cannabis in its natural form as many cannabanoids are excluded from this tincture. I can put you through to dozens of MS sufferers in the UK who would vouch for my point
Ah grow up. They aren’t looking smoke a joint. It’s for genuine medical reason so by making a CBD heavy liquid they avoid it being used recreationally.
American medical cannabis legislation is a sham. At a recent international cannabinoid conference all medical and scientific doctors from the states were pushing for methods to standardise the concentration of the 2 most relevant cannabinoids – THC and CBD. They wish to implement the Euro model where regulated doses of these active ingredients can be delivered and the benefits monitored correctly. But, much like complaining about big pharma, the sale of marijuana has become such a strong industry they cannot change now.
The only correct and ethical way to deliver a medicine is if you know what concentration of a substance you are giving a patient and what affect it will have.
Medical marijuana is for stoners…Cannabinoid based drugs are for medical practitioners and researchers!
Steven which medical system are you referring to? There’s dozens in America.
Herb is for Rastas and every herb that grows shall be for you according to jc
Funny I was speaking to a lad from colarado a few weeks back and he was saying that the tax alone is tripled what they expected to gain.
Thierry people are tired of the trolling
homoh lots of talk about tax and its all different.
the governor of colorado said in the next fiscal year they expect weed to gross 1 billion.
so lets take what eddie hobbs said a few years ago. a professor/teacher in U.C.D done a study on what money is worth in different scenes in ireland
1/ a person is paid 10k . buys a car from japan for 10k. the persons 10k spend worth is 12k to ireland
2/ a person is paid 10k. and spends the money on irish products the 10k spend worth is 52k to ireland.
so in colorado the weed is grown in state,bought in state, smoked in state this makes 1 billion spend worth 5.2 billion to the state of colorado
Steven – the euro model of standardised production includes Bedrocan – whole herb madicinal cannabis, which can be used to treat a greater range of ailments than sativex – my question is why Bedrocan is not being made available in Ireland….
if they rewrite the law to allow for medical use of THC and cbd etc then there’s no reason to believe you can’t import legal medical bud from the Netherlands, the cannabisbureau.nl state that all they needed was a prescription and they could send it here by post :)
A good start, although the scope of illnesses should be hugely widened.
I’d also guess that the “medicine” will come in liquid form rather than natural form, that way only pharma who can afford the processing will benefit & keep the price stupidly high (pardon the pun).
A proper licensed distribution chain (pharmacies for example) of natural form THC, with registered prescription dosage across a wide range of illnesses could really benefit a large number of people.
Following that, look at opening it to a proper business model with licensed stores & high taxes & see the taxes roll in.
It is in the form of a drug called savitex, so title is misleading . Savitex won’t come cheap, I would imagine.
The average price for an annual prescription in New Zealand this year was $16,000. Crazy considering you can grow a plant for a fraction of the cost that delivers a natural substance that does the same job.
Correction: better job
Apologies Amy…Better job! Up for a spliff? :D
Ah shur gowan ;-)
Sativex is going to end up costing MS sufferers and the Irish tax payer a small fortune, which is pretty sickening when you take into account that using cannabis in its natural form is both cheap and highly effective.
Tom Curran recently told TV3′s Ireland AM that cannabis in its natural form had a “very positive effect” on Marie as she battled with Multiple Sclerosis – http://www.thejournal.ie/cannabis-marie-fleming-1513997-Jun2014/
Tom has campaigned hard on this issue since Marie’s passing, he is an amazing man.
Who cares whether its legal or not? You can get it 24/7 if you want. Ask any 18 year old.
If you can get good stuff then fair play, but it’s usually over priced shite.
Well if you’re happy to roam the streets looking to score some pain relief while you’re dying, fair play to you. The rest of us would rather have some dignity.
Nobody should have to go underground for medicine. Unfortunately many medical patients still will as ms is one of dozens treated by cannabis
just grow your own supply, its easy to do
I care whether its legal or not. I and I’m sure everyone who enjoys cannabis & its benefits will agree that we don’t want to be called criminals and be in fear of being caught because of the potential backlash that could easily come with it. I still cannot wrap my head around how its justified to keep this illegal and how it was made illegal in the first place is as equally laughable. It was a sick generation of people that forced the law in spouting racism and bigotry at every chance. The war on drugs has well and truly failed. I watched a vice documentary last night I’ll post a link below but what local police is the states is doing is ridiculous. Forcing children with special needs into buying and selling them as little as 1 vicodin, giving them felony charges and thus receiving more funding. I’m sure similar things happen here…more busts more funding for local police blah blah…It’s a farce, It benefits no one. Since the war on drugs has begun there was been more drugs available more freely. Its like the war on drugs was a giant marketing campaign that succeeded.
The simple solution would be to allow people with a proscribed medical condition ie ms , Parkinson’s , Alzheimer’s , chronic back pain , cancer etc ,,,,,to be allowed grow their own cannabis for their own personal use ….. But again the gov. Have given into the big companies when it would be much easier to allow people grow their own at no cost to the HSE , who ,let’s face it , couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery
This is great news for sufferers of many illnesses as it will hopefully open the doors for research into the additional benefits the plant offers in the area of reducing inflammation. All you need to do is look at the benefits of legalising cannabis has had in Colorado to know this is a great step forward.
So I can’t plant a seed in my garden and grow and produce my own medicine but laws can be changed so big pharma can profit handsomely,hmhmmm typical
of course you grow weed in your garden, don’t take any notice of that stupid law
Essentially, yes. Great how big money companies are allowed from profit from your pain.
White said that he remains “hopeful” about signing the legislation tomorrow, but noted that it may be delayed until early next week while he sits on the couch eating biscuits and playing X-Box and eventually “gets his sh*t together”. He added “sorry, what was I talking about dude?…. oh yeah… man, I’m wasted”
Well done Ming you were the driving force !!
Its amazing what 124000 first preference does.so if we want ganja legalised we need to repeat this at the next general election.
what if someone was to change their name by deed pole to “Legalise Cannabis” and ran?
So basically what they’re telling us is that cannabis is grand, it helps, you were all right…so here’s a small bottle that good oul GW produced that’ll only cost you 500 quid….Or the government stop being narrow minded knobs hellbent on suiting those in suits. If they can bring this in surely they just blew the majority of their own arguments out of the water?
Fluoridated water
Narrow minded knobs hellbent on suiting those in suits – Yes, it’s like the Anglo Bank scam all over again, except this time it’s GW Pharma and they’re using vulnerable sick patients as the catalyst, it’s fcuking sickening!!
Sounds more like medical THC, not the medical marijuana set up of Califirnia – unfortunately
Or in 23 other states
Signing off on allowing more poison to be administered by doctors and for a pharmaceutical company to make millions. Where is the natural alternative?! Where is the decriminalisation of cannabis for medical use?
Sativex, which is what has been legalised, is an expensive poison.
Andrew Sativex is not poison but it is very expensive.
It’s not natural, and has many synthetic compounds, so will have adverse side effects for some. A natural alternative is the only route that is safe.
Excellent news as a farmer I wish to know when I can grow this wonderful medicinal product on my farm and make money for my family and the Irish economy.
For there is now no constitutional impediment to prevent me from growing this product ;- for medicinal purposes of course !
Otherwise it would be discrimination to allow just one company to grow and supply an organic product ….
We have them on the run now warriors ; I salute you !
Brilliant!
Its not even cannabis it’s sativex…. It’s not as good for ms as the products they use in the united states
Is this actual weed or some pharma derivitive
Pharma tincture
That headline reads like Mr White will be on marijuana when he signs off.
It’s a start. This quite possibly the start of something good.
Alex White is in the pocket of GW Pharmaceuticals the makers of ‘Sativex’ ,the cost of which is exorbitantly high.
Big Pharma wins again! BTW the title of this article is very misleading!
Legalizing drugs now…he should be stoned…. Is he serious? ….Maybe he is just having the crack…
alcohol is legal and soon weed will be to
You’ve a lot to learn about drugs
nature gives us the coco plant. Man turned it into cocaine to make money from it.
nature gives us the opium plant. Man turned it into heroin/morphine to make money from it
nature gives us the cannabis plant. Man changes it to make money.
Why can’t we just trust nature. its cheaper and safer
you have a lot to learn about life
Yippeeeeeeeeeeeee!! 115 red thumbs……I am on my way to achieving an all time personal best….I think ye are are all big girls!! ( that should help with the female vote…now vote like a girl!!!)
i like girls
When he legalises coke we can call him Snow White!
How much is it going to cost, Alex? I would suggest this might be a very important consideration for sufferers.
If it works for pain well you cannot be denied it,
Where’s Ming when you need him ?
the fecker took Daly’s high bank again this year and he’s bagging it as far as I know ….. … He panicked there for a while when he was unemployed …….
Take a bow MING -the sweetest victories are the ones hardest fought for !
would this make CBD oil legal?
Grey area. I’m my opinion it already is
Isn’t it terrible about the whistle father… What next drive bye shootings
The first step on a long journey. But the road goes down hill from here. Not that the sick & suffering should be made to wait. That is REALLY criminal.
Last act of Alex White in Health was to sign Sativex into law.
jdcjkdcjkd
People who need cannabis for medicinal purposes dont have to go to their doctor and get a prescription for that crap cannabis seeds and grow equipment is legal here in ireland and the plants are very easy to grow and cannabis in its natural form is much more effective and healthier than sativex
have your say