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Ireland: Senior doctors write to Government warning against Bill to legalise cannabis for personal use Eilish O'Regan Irish Independent Tuesday 30 Jan 2024 The Bill is being brought forward by People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny tomorrow evening and would allow a person possess up to 7g of cannabis herb or 2.5g of cannabis resin. However, doctors represented by the Irish Medical Organisation in a strongly-worded letter said a heavy cannabis smoker would consume two grams of cannabis a day and the Bill would allow seven grams. They said that Mr Kenny refers to decriminalisation but “this Bill proposes legalisation”. The Bill says verbatim that it proposes to make it “lawful for that person to have such possession of such an amount of that substance”. The doctors said that “cannabis is the primary problem drug for 1,225 of the people under 25 years old who accessed addiction treatment in 2022 in Ireland, accounting for 40pc of all treatment entrants in that age range, more than any other drug. “All addictions, including cannabis addiction, affect more than the individual. They cause huge distress and upset for the family,” said the letter. “Cannabis can also cause acute medical and mental health problems, with over three people admitted to a medical or psychiatric hospital every day in Ireland with a cannabis related diagnosis. The assessments of legalisation by the international medical associations noted above is that legalization seems to exacerbate these health problems. Legalisation is anti-health. “Concerns about the health dangers of cannabis and the risks of legalisation were also recently highlighted by Irish medical professional bodies. The Irish College of General Practitioners said that ‘cannabis is a dangerous drug and a serious public health concern’ and ‘acknowledges the current evidence in terms of the adverse impact of legalisation.” The recent report on drugs from the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland said that they “would have grave concerns about any move towards legalisation of cannabis or other drugs in Ireland”. The letter has been signed by Prof Bobby Smyth, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, Prof Ray Walley, a GP, Dr Ina Kelly, a public health specialist, Dr Hugh Gallagher an addiction specialist, Prof Matthew Sadlier a psychiatrist and Dr Ide Delargy, GP lead on addictions. The Citizens Assembly earlier this week recommended that the Government take a health-led approach to personal drug use. In their letter the doctors said that in spite of growing evidence of the hazardous consequences of cannabis use, the public perception of cannabis dangers has declined since 2010 in Ireland, among both adolescents and adults. This coincides with the unrelenting attack on our drug laws by those who have wanted cannabis legalised (while usually launching these attacks via a misrepresentation of decriminalization) “In tandem with their attack on and undermining of public respect for our drug laws, the legalization lobby simultaneously mounted campaigns to challenge the public view of cannabis as harmful by endlessly referring to this plant as a medicine. “The consequent decline in perceived risk has coincided with an intensification of use among people who use cannabis and an increase in the health harms of cannabis." Deputy Kenny described his Bill as a stress test for the Government on whether it is serious about decriminalisation. He said the recommendation from the Citizens Assembly for decriminalisation for personal use was crucial and it will be impossible for the Government to ignore it. https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/senior-doctors-write-to-government-warning-against-bill-to-legalise-cannabis-for-personal-use/a2030956741.html
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