|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
MS patient 'forced into exile' by strict Irish cannabis laws Jamie Deasy Sunday Tribune Sunday 25 May 2008 Noel McCullagh from Co Galway currently resides in Amsterdam and maintains the Irish government is flouting European regulations by not permitting him to return home for a holiday visit while in possession of his narcotic-based medicine. The chronically ill 32-yearold patient was diagnosed with the physically and mentally debilitating condition two years ago. He has since been unable to return to Ireland because he must regularly take the medication, legally prescribed to him under Dutch law. His failure to do so for more than a few days has resulted in his hospitalisation in the past. McCullagh claims that following one of his many requests to return to this country, an official from the Irish Department of Health told him that if he were to enter the state with his prescription, he would be arrested and charged with a criminal offence. As a consequence, he has not seen his parents in two years, has missed his only sister's wedding and has been absent from the births of his nieces and nephews and family funerals. McCullagh maintains that the government is ignoring a crucial piece of EU legislation. Article 75 of the convention implementing the Schengen Agreement states that people may carry narcotic drugs within the EU necessary for their medical treatment. Last week, McCullagh, through his attorney Jasper Pauw submitted an official petition to the European Parliament. Pauw said a Dutch representative of the European Commission has confirmed that Ireland participates in Article 75 of the Schengen Convention. However, a communication by an official in the Department of Justice said that the European Council decision of 2002 does not mean that Ireland is a participant but instead it signals Ireland's "intention to participate to a certain extent in Schengen". McCullagh, from Ballinasloe, maintains that the Irish government has treated him with a "shocking disregard for the law". "I am breathing evidence of the therapeutic benefits of medicinal cannabis and too many lies have been told to the Irish people for the government to now alter their official stance on cannabis, " he said. "Coming to terms with a life-sentence diagnosis is enough in itself but being shunned, declared an outlaw and forbidden from returning home to visit is too distressing for words, " he added. Researchers have claimed for years that smoking, infusing or eating cannabis can alleviate symptoms of MS including spasm, incontinence and pain. Taken regularly, it enables many MS patients to function almost normally and allows them to work without disabling pain and restriction of movement. http://www.tribune.ie/
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!