Ireland Minister For Health To Assist Medical Cannabis Patients

Ireland’s health minister recently announced that the government will help patients access medical cannabis and arranged for an emergency shipment of medical cannabis products from Holland to help address patient access issues. Below is a press release from Ireland’s government with more information:

Minister for Health Simon Harris TD has announced an initiative for patients who avail of a Ministerial licence for medicinal cannabis products to have the products delivered.

Speaking today, Minister Harris said:

“I am aware that the limited number of patients who avail of a Ministerial licence for medicinal cannabis products issued under section 14 of the Misuse of Drugs Acts have been encountering difficulties with access owing to travel restrictions and people’s need to self-isolate.

“I am very glad we have been able to make arrangements to have an emergency supply of their products collected for them in Holland, where the products are supplied, and to have the products delivered to the patients in Ireland. Patients and their clinicians are now being contacted by the department in order that these arrangements may be put in place.”

Ireland’s medical cannabis program is still very limited compared to other parts of the world, however, the move by Ireland’s government is encouraging. Hopefully the import from Holland will not be the last if the pandemic lingers onward and shortages continue, and hopefully as many patients are helped as possible by the imports.

Medical cannabis is essential for the patients that need it, and there are many suffering patients across Ireland that will not have safe, legal access to cannabis despite the imported medical cannabis products from Holland. Activists in Ireland must keep fighting until the day comes when every patient in Ireland gets the safe access to medical cannabis that they need and deserve.