Motion around regulation of Cannabis carried at Irish Medical Organisation’s AGM

drunkmonkey

Two GPs who treat young people for drug addiction believe cannabis use should be decriminalised for both recreational and medicinal use and regulated rather than outlawed.

Cathal Ó Súilliobháin, a Dublin-based GP who has worked in addiction services for 20 years, said the “major negative” of using cannabis “is getting caught”.

“The majority of people who use cannabis have no [health] problem,” he said. “Nobody has ever died from cannabis use,” he said, adding that it was “much less harmful” than alcohol.

Dr Ó Súilliobháin said he had “kids coming to me, usually with parents, and the problem is not the drug itself, but a problem with the family, with school, with the law”.

Dr Ó Súilliobháin said young people were getting convictions for using cannabis that were ruining their lives.

Garrett McGovern, a GP in addiction services in Dundrum, said that if cannabis was regulated rather than decriminalised, it would facilitate research on its effects.

“If you regulate a drug, you can study it with a greater degree of accuracy,” Dr McGovern said.

Both doctors were proposing a motion at the Irish Medical Organisation’s AGM in Co Kildare, calling on James Reilly, the health minister, to establish an expert committee to examine the effects, “both positive and negative” of cannabis use and production in Ireland “in order to help eliminate the illicit trade in psychoactive substances”.


Full story here via Irish Examiner. http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/cannabis-not-as-harmful-as-alcohol-266611.html

Have to agree with them, Reiley was straight out of reefer madness and the complete shoot down of the Dail proposals last year was absurd.

allinthehead

Won't happen under this government anyway, going by what the morons put forward as arguments during the regulation debate. Public opinion seems to be changing slowly in favor of some sort of regulation. Maybe sometime in the next ten years.

drunkmonkey

3rd highest ranked world news story on reddit. Hardly registers on Irish news media. Have the media been told to give it a rest by our overlords?

Rasheed

Was at a debate that Dr. Cathal Ó Súilliobháin was talking at, very interesting man. Had very good points about cannabis legalisation that really made me think. Before it, I was neither here nor there but he had some very good valid points.

mikom

Rasheed wrote: »

Was at a debate that Dr. Cathal Ó Súilliobháin was talking at, very interesting man. Had very good points about cannabis legalisation that really made me think. Before it, I was neither here nor there but he had some very good valid points.

I would love to know what points did he made that swayed you Rasheed.

SEPT 23 1989

rubadub

drunkmonkey wrote: »

“The majority of people who use cannabis have no [health] problem,”

Many would benefit from the medicinal effects, whether intentional or not, just like someone who likes a glass of wine with their dinner could benefit, while it is not their primary reason for taking that recreational drug.

They criminalised psilocybian mushrooms pretty much overnight after a single suicide/death attributed to it. I wonder how many suicides have since occurred because of its illegality -since ironically some use it to treat a condition known as "suicide headaches" or "cluster headaches"

ScumLord

drunkmonkey wrote: »

3rd highest ranked world news story on reddit. Hardly registers on Irish news media. Have the media been told to give it a rest by our overlords?

If you replaced GP with GAA maybe?


I've given up on our government, I don't trust any politicians and I don't trust there are any better candidates to choose from. It's the same on just about any topic that includes the government, I just don't trust they have the knowledge or ability to deal with anything in a nonpartisan way.

The best this country can hope for is the least worst scenario to happen.