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Review of medicinal cannabis begins after mother's protest march yesterday

Simon Harris will seek expert scientific advice on the issue, he said today.

HEALTH MINISTER SIMON Harris has announced a review of Ireland’s policy on medicinal cannabis, which is currently strictly controlled.

The announcement comes a day after mother Vera Twomey began a 150-mile protest from Cork to Dublin to try to persuade the government to legalise cannabis for medical purposes.

Vera’s six-year-old daughter Ava has Dravets syndrome, an extremely rare, drug-resistant form of epilepsy which at its worst, causes up to 20 seizures in a day.

Vera says that medicinal marijuana in liquid form has the potential to save her daughter’s life, as it reduces the frequency of Ava’s seizures – she says by about 80%.

Having been frustrated by continuous efforts to contact the Department of Health, and after her daughter had a particularly violent seizure, Vera set off on a 150-mile protest to try and get the government’s attention.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Drivetime tonight, Vera said that she and other people who had joined her had walked 20 miles and arrived in Mallow at about six o’clock when Minister Simon Harris rang her.

“He said well Vera I’m not comfortable that you are doing this, that you are walking all the ways up to Dublin; you don’t have to do this.”

I said to Simon I’m not comfortable having to walk 20 miles either but what am I going to do? What are you going to do?”

A formal meeting was arranged between Harris and Vera and the minister later released a statement regarding the medicinal cannabis.

In the statement, Harris says that he has asked the Health Products Regulatory Authority (formerly the Irish Medicines Board) to provide him with their expert scientific advice on the issue.

“This is not a discussion about decriminalising cannabis in any way shape or form, it is about reviewing our current policy and seeking to inform ourselves of the latest medical and scientific evidence on the potential medical benefits of cannabis for some people with certain medical conditions”, the Minister said.

Minister Harris continued, “I met with Vera Twomey in June and I understand the very difficult situation the family are in. I look forward to meeting with Vera again in the coming days.

I know that many patients believe cannabis should be a treatment option for their medical condition.

“However, cannabis is not currently an authorised medicine and has not gone through the normal regulatory procedures for medicines which are designed to protect patients and ensure treatments are supported by good evidence of their effectiveness.”

Cannabis for medical purposes is available in a number of countries, such as the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Canada, Australia, Malta, Croatia and certain states in the United States, but is currently strictly controlled in Ireland.

With reporting from Gráinne Ní Aodha.

Read: “If we don’t get the legislation, we mightn’t have Ava for much longer”: A mother’s 150-mile protest

Read: No movement in teachers’ pay discussions ahead of next week’s strike

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    Mute Dave Walsh
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    Oct 24th 2019, 7:08 AM

    Well paid full-time jobs gone. what’s out is there is mostly short-term or zero hour part time positions. And if you attempt to join a union, your gone.. Not to mention if your older… In a few weeks they people who lost there jobs will be long forgotten by Dublin…

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    Mute Fifty Shades of Sé
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    Oct 24th 2019, 7:03 AM

    Multinationals aren’t the benign overlords of FFG Mythology but relentlessly greedy entities that only care about enriching their own shareholders.

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    Mute Peter Carroll
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    Oct 24th 2019, 7:12 AM

    @Fifty Shades of Sé: The purpose of every business is to create value for a shareholder by delivering value to a customer.

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    Mute Fifty Shades of Sé
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    Oct 24th 2019, 7:36 AM

    @Peter Carroll: Yet we treat them as if their purpose is to improve our domestic economy, structuring our entire tax code in their favour while ordinary Irish workers get constantly shafted.

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    Mute Peter Carroll
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    Oct 24th 2019, 7:44 AM

    @Fifty Shades of Sé: No, that’s our (the State’s) purpose. The multi-nationals come here to take advantage of and benefit from the incentives on offer. Everyone knows that that’s the deal.

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    Mute Fifty Shades of Sé
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    Oct 24th 2019, 7:57 AM

    @Peter Carroll: The state is doing a much better job enriching obscenely wealthy companies than it is taking care of it’s own citizens. The Novartis employees will have to live on €200 a week until they find another job, many of them won’t be able to pay rent or a mortgage, but hey, the hedge fund owners who invest in companies like Novartis might be able to buy more private jets so it’s all good.

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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Oct 24th 2019, 8:33 AM

    @Fifty Shades of Sé: what do you suggest? The vast majority of businesses are run the same.

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    Mute Peter Carroll
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    Oct 24th 2019, 10:08 AM

    @Fifty Shades of Sé: I am not making a moral point. You can deal with the State through the ballot box, if you can get enough people to agree with you. Ironically, Ireland has one of the worlds largest aircraft leasing businesses!

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    Mute Fred Coloe
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    Oct 24th 2019, 10:14 AM

    @Fifty Shades of Sé: These companies have been employing people for decades allowing said employees to build their own standard of living. Are you serious with your comment? Do you think the workers would have preferred unemployment instead?!

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    Mute Kieran Woods
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    Oct 24th 2019, 3:39 PM

    @Fifty Shades of Sé: Absolute rubbish. Multinational manufacturers are huge net exporters which contribute massively to our economy without which our exchequer would not be able to provide many of its services. They have given hundreds of thousands of well paid jobs which in turn supports local suppliers, contractors and businesses. What should we do, run them away and return to making clay pipes and fiddles and become third world?

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    Mute Richard Mccarthy
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    Oct 24th 2019, 11:23 PM

    @Fifty Shades of Sé: So just what do you suggest is the answer,are you suggesting we force multinationals to keep employing people against their will,they wouldn’t even set up manufactoring plants in this country in the first place, it would be much better if people like you with a huge chip on their shoulder got rid of the victim mentality and done something positive.

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    Mute Michael Patrick Newell
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    Oct 24th 2019, 9:00 AM

    Sadly when a country like ours, who over rely on the mercy of these up and leave at any time multinationals, then you always run the risk of huge job culls at times. However while the government can’t be blamed for this, it is a bit of a stomach churner that these large and very wealthy companies are given special treatment in relation to things like the tax they pay here, while home grown businesses are made to pay higher amounts all because they don’t maybe have the same financial muscle or employee numbers, but will likely last longer and not do a runner when a better opportunity in some other low level country presents itself to move operations there and leave its employees jobless…..

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    Mute Corkonian In Dublin
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    Oct 24th 2019, 11:48 AM

    The sad thing is that by announcing the job losses now to start taking place from April / May next year, actually helps Fine Gael’s election prospects in a Spring 2020 election. If those job loses were announced in April with immediate impact, it would be difficult campaigns for Simon “Get me to a BRXIT or other EU meeting to avoid home trouble” Coveney. Like Michéal “I want all the power, but not during BRXIT” Martin, they have failed the city and county of Cork.
    FFG forget that there are people outside the M50.

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