24 .Canna We Talk Now? 2024 The Optimism Relaunch Again!

Bit of a Newsy Episode this one for 'Canna We Talk Now?' - The Glasses are once again an unfortunate metaphor for the backwardness of Irish Drug Policy

New Year, so a brave new naïve optimism prevails but there is a lot of good and bad news in the space.

2023 saw the long awaited, ostensibly Civil Service Scam that was the Citizen’s Assembly on Drugs!

Plans are to get some of the ‘Citizens’ on for a chat – The result was 37 recommendations most as ever containing the conditional ‘Should’...

We can as ever, expect a nicely bound report to gather dust in the bowels of Leinster House. Ireland has always been famed for our writers so I suppose it is what we do #IrelandWritesReports

Next week I hope to chat with the irrepressible 'pain in the Dáil arse' that is Gino Kenny. Gino will once again table what is a new short mostly Decrim Bill which we truly hope will be supported and stop criminalising people!

In November Aodhan O Riordan in the Dáil put the figure of people arrested for Personal possession at over 6400, so presumably we will have been close to a year end figure of close to 7000...

Odd as the nGardai claimed in the CA that nobody is ever prosecuted for personal use LOL

But some like Patrick Moore can be prosecuted for non profit cultivation that genuinely helped so many patients who testified as such in court but he was given 5 years for his guilty plea – Today 13/1/24 will be the 407th day of his sentence!

There are currently 5 cases (approx) being taken by Ireland’s much loved CBD stores, who have had their products continuously and illegally under EU law seized always with the same heavy handed raids. Their family businesses have been damaged and all the stress of the raids causing no end of personal anguish for the staff.
We will be seeking to get some of those voices on in February to get the reaction to the court cases which will have taken by then.

The Irish Medical Refugees (Including myself) are still exactly that, refugees unable to return and medicate themselves in a dignified civilised legal fashion...

In European news there is also a case of a collective one foot step forward and 2 steps back!
In many cases as the political compositions of parliaments constantly changes... but generally policy moves across the continent go from one minute Progressive to more stronger Prohibition the next!

In Spain there has been awesome news that the new left wing government which by bringing in a lot of the outlier parties with the most progressive in 'Gender composition' has meant a new cabinet and a new Health Minister Monica Gomez. Ms Gomez is herself a pain specialist doctor and anaesthesiologist it is hoped will unblock politics and finally deliver proper legislation for a Cannabis Access programme!

Every Country has their champions while for Ireland it took Vera Twomey to walk from Cork to Dublin to try and make politicians give her the vital oils she needed for her child, the now sadly departed Ava. Similarly it was Charlotte Caldwell who campaigned for her son Billy who while from the same island but the other jurisdiction that meant that campaign meant the legalisation of Medical Cannabis in the UK.
In Spain there is the tireless Carola Perez, an adult who suffers from chronic pain. The hope is that these movements in Spain might produce a policy that can be a model of best practice for 'medical Cannabis' across the continent...

Back with healthcare in Ireland we will speak with the amazing Dr Joesph Rosado the doctor who treated and prescribed the oils that Abigail Mc Quillan so desperately needed and he did so through her palliative care until she sadly passed within weeks of Ava at the beginning of the Summer. Our 2 little martyrs should never be forgotten RIP

Pilots in Amsterdam and Zurich are looking to create further working models that with a Germany, Luxembourg, Czechia and Malta all edging forward the EU must be feeling the pressure to end the nonsense and regulate!!

Alas with Cannabis whenever there is progress it is usually always matched with some real regression...

Even in Spain for so long a light in its development of the CSC Model, it is admired across the world but now has to deal with a lowly commissioner in the Barcelona Town Hall looking to make a name for himself is pledging to close ALL the clubs in Barcelona... defies belief but further demonstrates the inane nature of political reaction to the DEMON WEED!!!

I am currently organising a very high level Irish delegation who will join me for all the events that take place around Spannabis which will take place for the 22nd year beginning on Paddy’s Day this year. There will be 30,000 people enjoying the Europe's longest established conference and party!
As ever it will be proceeded by the incredible C-Days conferences which take place in a devoted department of Barcelona’s UPC
For our part with Irish Canna Clinic…
We have decided to develop something called the 'Irish Canna Fringe' which will be an Edinburgh Style multidisciplinary Arts Open Invitation event where I hope the artists of the 32 counties of Ireland from musicians, dancers, film makers to Street Artists, whatever will come together in one grassroots Arts festival.

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