Cannabis in Ireland
[1] A bill to legalise medical uses of cannabis passed second reading in Dáil Éireann (lower house) in December 2016,[2] but was rejected by the Oireachtas Health Committee in 2017.
[17] Licences were granted to GW Pharmaceuticals in 2002 and 2003 to allow medical trials of the cannabis extract nabiximols (Sativex) in a county Cork hospice and Waterford Regional Hospital.
[19][20][21] The first licence for medical use of cannabis oil was issued in December 2016 to allow Tristan Forde, a two-year-old boy with Dravet syndrome, to continue treatment begun in Colorado.
[1] A community of anonymous cannabis users who reside in Ireland was created under the name Crainn (Irish for "trees") in 2010 as a subreddit on the platform Reddit.
[23] In September 2021 it set up a board of directors to "get organised and to help communicate to politicians what we want" and has expanded to other online platforms, such as a Discord server which was established in 2017.
In December 2016, a private member's bill was introduced by Gino Kenny of People Before Profit to make cannabis available in Ireland for medicinal use.
[37] A 2020 news article described Donnelly as "broadly supportive" of supervised injection centres and open to making cannabis legal.
In a 2020 interview, Green Party health spokesperson, Ossian Smyth said that he raised the proposition of legalising drugs during government negotiations, but added: “Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil said no.”[40]In November 2022, Gino Kenny introduced a bill to legalise personal usage of cannabis, and possession of up to seven grams (¼ oz) of cannabis.
[43] The report itself was influenced by advocacy groups and experts such as Patients for Safe Access, Crainn, Dr. Garret McGovern, Dr. Bobby Smyth and Dr. Nuno Capaz.
[48] A small, informal cross-party group of 'like-minded' TDs and senators had worked together to push the issue forward, including Holly Cairns of the Social Democrats, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin of Labour, Paul McAuliffe of Fianna Fáil, Neasa Hourigan of the Green Party, Gino Kenny of People Before Profit and independent senators Lynn Ruane and Eileen Flynn.
In 2010, then-deputy leader of Fine Gael James Reilly advocated for the legalisation of medicinal cannabis for terminally ill patients and people with multiple sclerosis.
[54] In 2022, it was revealed that minister with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy, Frank Feighan had met with a group of doctors opposing the legalisation of cannabis in 2021.
[60] During the 2020 general election, Sinn Féin's manifesto did not feature anything regarding legalising cannabis, but stated that harm reduction and prevention would be "guiding principles" in the party's future drug strategy.
[62] The party's 2020 manifesto had said that if in power, they would end criminal penalties for possession of "less than a week's supply" of a scheduled drug and allow prescription-based medicinal cannabis products to be purchased in pharmacies.
[54] In 2017, a motion endorsed by Aodhán Ó Riordáin supporting the legalisation of cannabis for recreational usage was passed at Labour conference.
"[64] The previous Labour Party leader Alan Kelly has stated that he supports the legalisation of cannabis in Ireland on both medicinal and recreational grounds.
[68][69] In 2020, a spokesperson for the Social Democrats stated that the party wanted to "examine best practice models regarding decriminalisation of the possession of small amount of drugs.
Some independent politicians including Luke 'Ming' Flanagan,[28] Eileen Flynn,[75] Finian McGrath,[76] Kevin "Boxer" Moran,[77] Thomas Pringle,[78] and Lynn Ruane[75] have expressed their support for cannabis legalisation, while others such as Michael Harty[79] have opposed it.
[80] An Amárach Research poll carried out on behalf of TheJournal.ie in November 2016 showed that 48% of people surveyed supported the legalisation of cannabis for recreational usage, while 41% said no and 11% said they did not know.
