Prescribed Cannabis Outlawed in Ireland

[Herb Fellow]

Doctors who disagree with health officials’ hostile stance on medicinal cannabis should ‘start with the Irish literature’, according to the campaigner highlighting patients’ impasse with Irish Customs to the European Commission. Mr Noel McCullagh, who lives with multiple sclerosis, said that an Irish doctor brought the treatment into accepted medical practice 170 years ago. Now the Commission is to investigate the State’s compliance with the Schengen Agreement in stopping citizens from returning to Ireland with cannabis extracts legitimately prescribed elsewhere in the European Union.

From Holland, Mr McCullagh told IMT that a restricted cannabinoid research scheme in Waterford Regional Hospital had delivered results on treatment benefits. “But when this is considered as an issue of civil protection as outlined in the citizens’ rights of the [European] Treaties... it’s fought tooth and nail.” He said doctors were better placed to appreciate that the extract of cannabis used in treatment was ‘very different from the illicit drug’.

Mr McCullagh said concerned doctors had helped create awareness in the UK by writing prescriptions for medicinal cannabis on principle before pharmacists could supply it.

News Moderator: Herb Fellow - 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Irish Medical Times
Copyright: 2008, Irish Medical Times
Contact: Alan Deeley
Website: Irish Medical Times | News | Prescribed cannabis outlawed in Ireland

 

[Noel McC]

Thank you! - From 'Noel McCullagh' Re: Prescribed Cannabis Outlawed in Ireland

Thank you! - From Noel McCullagh’

Dear readers,

Thank you for posting the article from the Irish Medical Times on this 420 site above about my being exiled from ever returning home to visit my parents in the West coast of Ireland: all because I am sick and disabled by MS.

My name is Noel: when I was 30 years-old I received a diagnosis MS. This illness and its treatment under best practises here in the country where I live and work means that I have not been able to travel to Ireland: because there my medicines are considered as illegal drugs.

The Irish government didn't (& still don’t) actually want to know which brand of medicine I take nor the pharmaceutical (medical) company that manufactures it. We are told, that "because" my medicines contain cannabis as an active ingredient... that "this means" (therefore, 1,2,3) I may no longer enter the Republic of Ireland so long as I have “said medical condition” ... yeah, well there’s no cure for MS and if anything it gets worse with time so really dont know what they mean by that... "as long as said medical condition persists" ... does this mean that I have to expire in order to be able to return home??? What is not possible in life, becomes possible in death? It really beggars belief!

There's been a lot of media attention lately this May and June 2008.

It all began with the article in the Sunday Tribune, Ireland's international Sunday paper, and which has many many subscribers in the USA (all of the Gaelic sports results from the old country (Ire) on Saturday are published on that paper on Sunday).

The link to the free subscription of that article is this:
<MS patient 'forced into exile' by strict Irish cannabis laws>
MS patient 'forced into exile' by strict Irish cannabis laws

The Regional newspapers back home in the county Galway (where mum and dad live) are also covering this on an ongoing basis:

<MS sufferer, stopped from entering country, slams legislators> GALWAY INDEPENDENT
MS sufferer, stopped from entering country, slams local TDs - Galway Independent

2 weeks ago, the Irish Medical Times ran its first story:
<Irish man prescribed cannabis for MS can't come home>
https://www.imt.ie/blogs/irish-Medica...to-stay-1.html

The media here in the Netherlands picked up the story from the Irish National Radio Station, (No 1 Radio show in Ireland and abroad for the Irish)
The Pat Kenny Show, on RTE RADIO 1
https://www.rte.ie/radio1/player_av.h...ny-Friday.smil
[real player required, I think]

After that, the story broke here on the International Press Desk of the largest press agency in the Benelux (NOVUM PRESS AGENCY) - which produced news in 11 languages (not in English though)...
so it is now a BIG story in the EU
TROUW: 'Amsterdamse Ier naar Commissie om cannabismedicijn'
(national newspaper Netherlands)
https://www.trouw.nl/laatstenieuws/la...icijn#readmore

NIEUWS. NL "Amsterdamse Ier naar Commissie om cannabismedicijn"
(news publication netherlands)
Nieuws.nl - Binnenlands Nieuws

MANY OTHER PUBLICATIONS ALL RAN THE STORY, e.g.
https://www.dag.nl/1077694/NIEUWS/Art...ismedicijn.htm]
Elsevier.nl - Laatste 24 uur
Amsterdamse Ier naar Commissie om cannabismedicijn - MSN Nieuws | Laatste nieuws binnenland en buitenland


ON SATURDAY 30 MAY THE IRISH TIMES
(it is the No1 Irish 'politics' international broadsheet publication) published an item, it is below, b’cos you wont be able to access it online (subscription service only)

Claim State in breach over MS cannabis use
by STEVEN CARROLL of the Irish Times. 30 May 2008

A DUTCH lawyer has claimed the Irish Government is in breach of its commitments to the Schengen Agreement by not allowing a Galway man into the State in possession of cannabis he requires for medicinal purposes.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) sufferer Noel McCullagh is involved in a legal battle to allow him to return to Ireland from the Netherlands in possession of his prescribed cannabis. Mr McCullagh said he has been unable to see his parents for two years because he would be arrested if found in possession of the drug by Customs officials.

His lawyer, Jasper Pauw, said that under Schengen, an agreement designed to abolish physical borders between European countries, Mr McCullagh should be allowed to bring the cannabis into Ireland.

“Ireland is not fully participating in the convention but in 2002 you signed up to part of it and you are a signatory to Article 75, which is the relevant article.

“This says when people use a medicine in a certain Schengen country and the medicine is legal in that country, people can travel freely inside the Schengen zone and bring that medicine as long as they have a certificate,” he said.

A Department of Health spokeswoman last night said: “As the law currently stands . . . it would not be possible for a cannabis extract to be licensed here for medicinal use. There are no exemptions.

“Any person entering the country with medicinal cannabis could be charged under the Misuse of Drugs Act with unauthorised possession. The Minister for Health and Children does not intend to change the law.”

The spokeswoman said Schengen compliance was a matter for the Department of Justice, which said: “Ireland will have to undergo an evaluation before we will be permitted to participate . . .this department is currently addressing the arrangements . . . for the implementation of a range of Schengen measures.”++++end of article++++

+++Nota Bene: the Schengen Agreement mentioned in the article basically means “the European Union Treaty Law, which is “Federal Law” in the European Union, as opposed to the “local laws” of the individual member states of the European Union +++++++

+++ YESTERDAY THERE WAS YET another national radio interview and there is a television interview planned for next week too.

I would like to travel to the USA on an import/export licence with my legitimate medicines, and I am currently investigating that now with the US authorities and the “Health Inspectorate” of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. [the Dutch FDA, who are the manufacturers of my medicines]

My dream and goal is to shake the hand of Barack Obama.

His 3rd -great grandfather came from Ireland in 1790 to America (not very far at all at all from where I was born) : Mr Fulmuth Kearney .

He was a cobbler - a shoe-maker.

That was covered last year by the British Press Association and published in the Irish Times 02/05/2007
ARTICLE:

<OBAMA ROOTS TRACED TO COUNTY OFFALY, IRELAND>
THE IRISH TIMES 02/05/2007 Irish Newspaper Online with News from Ireland & the World - ireland.com

DUBLIN: US presidential hopeful Barack Obama's ancestry has been traced back to a shoemaker in a small Co Offaly village, it emerged today.

Records unearthed in the home of an elderly parishioner who died recently have shed new light on the prominent Illinois senator's roots

A Church of Ireland rector who has scoured historical church files dating back to the late 1700s confirmed Mr Obama descended from Moneygall on Offaly's border with Co Tipperary.

The village today holds little more than a couple of pubs, a few shops, a Catholic church and a GAA pitch.

Canon Stephen Neill, from the nearby town of Cloughjordan, began delving into the senior Democrat's past after a genealogist in Salt Lake City, Utah, told him about the possible connection with his parish.

"I would be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that this is categorical evidence of Mr Obama's link to this part of the world," said the rector.

It was initially believed the would-be president's third great grandfather Fulmuth Kearney was the only one of his family to have sailed from Ireland to New York aged 19 in 1850. But the newly-uncovered records show other family members had in fact emigrated to America since the 1790s.

They also reveal that Fulmuth's father, Joseph, was a shoemaker — a wealthy skilled trade at the time. "They would have been among the upper echelons of society back then. They would have been comfortable," said Canon Neill.

The original Anglican church that Senator Obama's ancestors would have worshipped at still stands, although now as a private home, having been converted about 30 years ago.

A former civil rights attorney Mr Obama is being tipped as the first black presidential hopeful with a chance of taking the top office in Washington. The 45-year-old is hoping to see off Hillary Clinton to be the Democrat's official candidate for the White Office polls next year.​

+++++end of article++++++++
+++++++++++++

SO, THE DEMOCRATS are really supportive of this entire issue, and they have given assistance to people like Scott Ward, who testified at the NJ Legislature last week. Also to Gerry McGrath, a nurse in NJ, who spoke about the last days of her son, Sean, who died of the cancer in 2004.
THE NEW JERSEY TIMES, EDITORIALS <Rx for marijuana > Monday, June 02, 2008
Rx for marijuana - NJ.com

As it happens, all these people from NJ - they all have Irish names, and are all from my home region back in Ireland: Ward & McGrath. [they gave testimony last week to the N.J. Legislative Assembly on the efficacy and uses of marijuana in medical treatment].

My own namesake, John McCain, is on the record on this health topic as being entirely ambiguous to being downright opposed to this !!!!!
What kind of Irish name does he have, I ask myself? And in his old-age, one would think that there are a number of medical complaints citied by the CA Legislature that would make him eligible for treatment for specific medical complaints that are common to the elderly.

The prescription medication that I receive on prescription is a 'Sales Taxed' product in this country, so it is totally legitimate. Its produced by the Ministry of Health, Wellbeing and Sports of the Federal Dutch Government.
You can read about the legislation on the website of the Dutch Federlal government, Dept of Health….(It‘s even in English too) :
Office of Medicinal Cannabis

Still, the Irish Rulers back home in Dublin Castle say that it will be confiscated from me and used as evidence in a court of law designed to put me behind bars for the offence against the state (bringing my meds with me on holiday to visit my old, and ill, mother back home in the West of Ireland, in Galway [means "the way of the Gaels").
The Minister of Justice, Equality and Law Reform there has absolute contempt for me and for my even daring to attempt to return home with this “Dutch Stuff”:
So that is why he revealed in public (on the record even) what my medical diagnosis was in the Parliament on April 8 2008. As you all know I have MS so this revelation was no small thing. He claims parliamentary privilege (an old and outdated British (colonial) law that extends total indemnity to the Irish parliamentarians, no matter what they say or reveal when speaking there in public).

So anyway, just wanted to thank you for bringing the story on this site.

If you would like to listen to the recordings of the other interviews that I made with the national radio in Ireland last week, let me know by mailing to my address: I will send them on or find a way to put them online.
[not so good at that myself, and my arms get very tired from all this typing over the past 2 weeks]

zeromccullagh@gmail.com

Thanks everyone,

Noel McCullagh

 

[Smokin Moose]

Noel, thank you so much for coming and posting here. I read through your post and I was captivated! Keep up the good fight mate! I have sent you an email my friend.

 

[Boss]

We will keep fighting brother!