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MOTHER AND CAMPAIGNER Vera Twomey is to hold another protest outside the Dáil saying that “nothing else will do” except new legislation in the area.
Twomey, who has come to national prominence for her campaign against what she sees as the denial of treatment for her daughter Ava, says Irish laws makes doctors reluctant to apply for a special dispensation.
Ava suffers from a rare form of epilepsy called Dravet’s syndrome and her condition has been treated and has been dramatically improved by the use of cannabis-based CBD oil.
Vera Twomey wants her daughter to have access to a stronger product containing THC.
Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the substance in cannabis which gives the high but at low levels has been shown to be useful treating conditions such as Ava’s.
But since THC contains psychoactive elements, it falls under the Misuse of Drugs Act and is therefore, illegal.
“It’s just an extension of the CBD and, in the small percent that you require it, it’s a necessary addition to improve her situation and that’s really what our fight has always been about,” Twomey told TheJournal.ie.
As this explainer points out, the Minister for Health can grant a licence for access to cannabis for medical purposes in individual cases when an application is endorsed by a consultant “who is responsible for the management of the patient”.
In the specific case of Ava Twomey, her consultant has so far not sought this licence from Minister Simon Harris.
“The public neurologist says there was a lack of public evidence and that she couldn’t oversee Ava’s care because there’s a lack of expertise in the country,” Twomey says.
After her march to the Dáil, Vera Twomey said she was given a number of other options in order to obtain the treatment. These included travelling abroad.
“The second neurologist said she could send us to Canada to be seen by a neurologist there and they would be able to prescribe the medicinal cannabis for Ava but unfortunately Ava wouldn’t be stable enough to travel a long distance like that,” Twomey says.
She added that another neurologist in Cork was willing to oversee Ava’s THC-based treatment but wanted the support of a colleague in doing so, but this was not forthcoming.
Twomey says the problem is that the laws make doctors unwilling to look at new options.
That is why she says passing the Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill is the only way forward.
The bill has passed the first stage of the Dáil but has since stalled.
“Nothing else will do, nothing else at this stage will do,” Twomey says.
I mean Paul, my husband and I, have exhausted all avenues and every suggestion or every attempt to make progress that we have tried has been blocked. And my daughter is in seriously in need of this medication.
Twomey’s protest will take place at the Dáil on Wednesday 29 March and will begin at 7pm with people assembly there from about 5pm.
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if it was a government minister’s child, the law would be changed overnight…
@Charles Martel: why wont her Consultant proscribe the Drug for her, seems strange to me or are we not getting the full story.
@James Horkan: Because it’s currently illegal and not an approved medicine and consultants don’t like to risk their careers and licences prescribing illegal and unapproved medicaments however efficacious they may prove to be.
@James Horkan: because he’s an expert and he knows it’s useless. Doctors are not supposed to pander to the sCAM notions of their patients. The ones that do are generally nut cases or con artists.
At this stage,it should be clear that policymakers are preventing a child getting the medicine she needs, it saddens me when we put politics before healing a child…
We should now be talking about cannabis clubs for illness needs, let the people heal
@David Dineen: not sure this is the hub of the matter. The law allows for a licence to be given but the consultant has not asked for one. Plain and simple. I for one agree that clinical decisions should be made by clinicians and ministers should not have the power to overrule them.
@Shane Bradley: I think you’re missing the point. If it was a potentially dangerous or heavy medication then, yeah, I would agree. But this is cannabis.
The legal frameworks mean that the medical experts are reluctant to use THC at all, even just to trial it for Ava. What is the risk in allowing this, I ask? That someone, somewhere in Ireland might get a high?
Politicians should not prescribe or prevent drug treatments. But Harris has already said he will support the licence if the medical team request it.
I would like to know why the consultants think this isn’t a good idea… my experience of them, for all the bashing they receive, is that they are fairly focussed on the welfare of their patients
Given options such as ‘Travel Abroad’. Fond of that one aren’t we?
Simon Harris has to be the most ineffective health minister ever and thats including the furry red faced millionaire doctor and that other yoke .
Pharma Control. Simple as !!!
It could be time to get the walking boots on for a hike to Kildare Street soon ?
absolutely farcical there is a gombeen in charge of health a gutless wonder indeed i agree wholeheartedly with Vera. Imagine the govt wants to prohibit the little girls access to a medical use of this drug…….while at the same time if they applied the same resolve to control the vast quantities of illegal drugs arriving here covertly? the mind boggles
Cannabis is medicine.
Here’s a link to a large number of real science studies demonstrating this.
Medical professionals need to start looking into this not sitting waiting for IMO or medical council or whoever has to endorse it.
Why is this all of a sudden all about THC? Ava Twomey has been interviewed before, where she talked about Charlotte’s Web oil, which is classed as a hemp oil in the states, because of it’s low THC content (0.3%). The reason why this oil is reputed to work is because of its high CBD content (17%). Over here this oil would be classed as a cannabis product, because the THC content is 0.1% higher than the allowable limit. Is 0.1% THC going to make all that difference?
Given the IRGOV never blows its nose without checking first with Uncle Sam if it’s ok to do so, wouldn’t be surprised to see a sudden fall-off in support and/or rise in ministerial/political opposition to the recent talk about slackening off the draconian controls on what is after all a natural substance never shown to kill anyone and shown in countries where it has been studied to actively kill cancer, reduce nausea, meliorate against a number of otherwise insufferable conditions including pain (the US FDA has lodged and holds over 200 patents w/r/t c. sativa and indica despite the US legal position being still that it is of ”no medical or scientific use”.
Whatever way the US Prez blows on the subject (and last time it was mentioned Mr Obama was saying that yes he did inhale that was the point) the Irish government will blow also, and not just in respect to this in respect to everything else too.
It’s not really a government here, just a bunch of local satraps feathering their own nests and pumping local gripes and whinges up to Dub for fixing and to be blamed on the EU/IMF/Uncle Tom Cobbley and all if they can’t be. No vision, authority, honesty nor integrity for anything more never has had never will.
I wish every damn news article and media outlet would stop referring to THC as “the substance that gives the high” as if it’s that’s ALL it does. It’s a a very complex and important part of the make up of the whole plant and in correlation with cbd at a higher ratio produces no high.
Most strains of recreational cannabis have large percentages of THC:CBD where as medical cannabis is generally the other way around. THC has proven medical benefits beyond the “high”
Opiates can make you high at high (badummtish) doses, yet it’s fine for them to prescribe them to us for chronic severe pain ! They are HPRA approved and life threatening, fatal in overdose, as opposed to cannabis having zero related deaths ever as a result of consumption.
THC activates pathways in the central system which work to block pain signals from being sent to the brain just like an opiate would. It’s proven to be especially effective against neuropathic pain, or nerve-related pain. Having fibromyalgia i would embrace it over opiates always.
I am on 7 different medications for severe Fibromyalgia for 13 years. Wouldn’t you if you were me like to switch to one, natural alternative to replace all the lab made poison ?
Thc is also an anti emetic , appetite stimulant , helpful in reducing pressure in the eye relating to glaucoma, helpful with insomnia, asthma , PTSD, and this is all without being combined with CBD . Combine the two and you have a whole host of other illnesses it can treat as anyone with the intelligence to ignore the pharma peddlers in government knows.
The government and pharmaceutical industry do not want patients to have access to this plant . They want us to have access to their patented synthetic copies of them . Many of which are already available in other countries. Sativex, Epidiolex, Nabilone, Marinol, Cesamet.
So it’s alright for them to make a fake version of it (think Marinol is direct extract perhaps) and market it but it’s very dangerous and illegal in its original whole plant organic form.
Get a hold of yourself there, HPRA and Irish government . Gone are the days people could easily be fooled by rte and government controlled media propaganda.
Grrrrr
The Lady’s name is Vera !!! Twomey…
NOT ..!!!! ” Twomey ”
A bit of professionalism and consideration goes a long way…
Keep going Vera. We’re behind you..
Simon Harris playing God with a Child’s Life. Shame on Him.
When did she get it into her head about cannabis oil? There are many other children in Ireland with the same problem yet they aren’t roaring about wanting something they can’t get. If she is serious about this she needs to get other parents with the same problem onboard.
All this rubbish blaming the minister, he has done his best and can’t do anymore but carry on blaming him like clueless idiots.
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