Medical use
The 1998 regulations under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 (as amended) listed cannabis, cannabis resin, cannabinol and its derivatives as schedule 1 drugs.[14] For such drugs, manufacture, production, preparation, sale, supply, distribution and possession is unlawful for any purpose, except under licence from the Minister for Health.[15] 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.[16]
In 2014, the 1998 regulations were amended to allow nabiximols to be prescribed by excepting it from schedule 1.[17][18][19] 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][20] This was issued by the minister after an application by the boy's physician.[1]weki
Reform Luke 'Ming' Flanagan, a longstanding pro-cannabis campaigner, was elected to the 31st Dáil in the 2011 general election as an independent Teachta Dála for Roscommon–South Leitrim.[21] On 6 November 2013, he proposed a motion "That Dáil Éireann calls on the Government to introduce legislation to regulate the cultivation, sale and possession of cannabis and cannabis products in Ireland", which was defeated by 111 votes to 8.[22][23] On 20 November 2013, he introduced a private member's bill, the Cannabis Regulation Bill 2013, which never got a second reading.[24][25] In November 2015, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, the Minister of State responsible for the National Drugs Strategy, said he favoured decriminalising #cannabis, cocaine and heroin for personal use.[26]
Ó Ríordáin lost his seat at the 2016 election. 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.[27] It passed second stage without a vote.[2][28] The bill progressed to the amendments stage on 9 November 2017.[29]
One of the major organisations campaigning for the legalisation of cannabis in Ireland is NORML Ireland. 'NORML Ireland supports the removal of all penalties for the private possession of cannabis by adults, cultivation for personal use, and the casual nonprofit transfers of small amounts. NORML Ireland also supports the development of a legally controlled market for cannabis'.[30] In June 2018, after a bill was passed to legalise cannabis in Canada, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar stated that the #decriminalisationofcannabis was 'under consideration', with an expert group considering the examining the systems in jurisdictions in which cannabis has been decriminalised for recreational use.[31 weki
