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Cannabis health debate reopens
Valerie Robinson The Irish News
Thursday 16 Aug 2001 The Gardai commissioner, Pat Byrne, has suggested that the possible medicinal benefits of cannabis should be explored. The commissioner, who was speaking this week at the annual MacGill summer school in Co Donegal, said he was opposed to the decriminalisation of the drug for general purposes. The government minister with responsibility for drugs, Eoin Ryan, said that he could not see anyone objecting to the legalisation of a cannabis-based drug under medical supervision to alleviate the symptoms of conditions such as cancer or multiple sclerosis. He also said that, following tests in Britain, such a drug could be on the market here as soon as next year. Author Paddy Doyle who suffers from ITD - a condition which causes involuntary movement of the body - yesterday said he had tried marijuana twice and found that it 'dampens down the movement without impairing my judgement'. Mr Doyle said he had been prescribed a long list of over-the-counter drugs since he was 11 years old, and had undergone a series of operations. In 1996, his consultant looked into the possibility of having the use of marijuana legalised for medicinal purposes, but Mr Doyle said the then justice minister, Nora Owen, 'refused to have anything to do with the use of marijuana'. Speaking on RTE, he added: 'I have a dreadful fear that the medical community have become dependent on the large pharmaceutical companies and that they are conservative in their outlook.' Meanwhile, a new survey has found that the use and supply of cocaine is on the increase in the Republic. And the Trinity College-based Drug Misuse Research Division, discovered that frequent cocaine users did not find their consumption to be damaging or problematic. The team also found that cocaine was becoming a more socially-acceptable drug. Labour's health spokeswoman Liz McManus yesterday welcomed the comments of the Gardai commissioner regarding the medical use of cannabis. She said: 'There is evidence which indicates that cannabis can have beneficial effects for people suffering from a range of illnesses, such as epilepsy, MS and other degenerative bone and muscle diseases.'
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