Regulations to allow for the prescribing of medicinal cannabis are to be finalised within the next week. The regulations will permit the prescribing of cannabis-based medicines to relieve muscle spasm symptoms in people with multiple sclerosis.

Minister of State for Health Alex White said he was hopeful he would be able to sign the regulations before the end of the week.

An application to allow Sativex, which contains extracts from the leaf and flower of the cannabis plant, to be sold in the Irish market has been received by the Irish Medicines Board.

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Sir, - It may not be popular, but it needs to be said - the sentencing of Pat Scanlan to 15 years in prison for importing 4.8kg of cannabis is monstrous ("Restaurateur jailed for 15 years for importing cannabis", Home News, May 21st).

The merits or otherwise of cannabis can be debated; what is absolutely certain is that its criminalisation has done nothing to diminish its popularity, and it has been freely available in Ireland for over 40 years. It has remained popular because people who use it know it is not in any way equivalent to heroin or other hard drugs. A sentence of 15 years is completely out of proportion to the crime committed, and in due course will come to be seen as barbarous. - Yours, etc,

Eoin Dillon, Ceannt Fort, Mount Brown, Dublin 8.

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A Notorious Drug Dealer Is One Of 12 Suspects For An Assault Which Saw A Detective Pistol-Whipped.

The criminal has been identified by gardai as a main suspect after a detective who was held at gunpoint was beaten unconscious by the assailant with a gun in a Dublin park.

The middle-aged detective, who is attached to Sundrive Road garda station, was knocked unconscious in the attack at Ravensdale Park in Kimmage on March 25.

While he is making a good recovery from his injuries, an intensive garda investigation into the incident is continuing.

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THESE days it's increasingly popular for politicians to admit to smoking cannabis in their youth, so why are we still criminalising young people for the same behaviour?

Last month, Barack Obama caused a stir when he said: "I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked ... I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol."

Meanwhile, in this country, even conservative types like Leo Varadkar and Brian Cowen have admitted to smoking the odd spliff when they were in college. However, despite their own dalliances with drugs in the past, politicians demonstrate breathtaking hypocrisy in insisting on the continuation of a failed policy - the blanket criminalisation of cannabis use.

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A man who has had both his eyes removed due to glaucoma has handed himself in to gardai with a quantity of herbal cannabis in a protest designed to challenge the law regarding the use of the drug for medicinal purposes.

Mark Fitzsimons (30) has been completely blind for the past five years and believes that by being prosecuted for possession he may be able to avail of free legal aid in order to test legislation.

On Thursday, with the help of his cane and carer, the Dundalk resident presented himself to gardai with a small quantity of the drug and requested he be charged with possession in order to secure a court appearance. Gardai confiscated the substance and issued him with a formal caution. Once a test confirms it is cannabis , Mr Fitzsimons will receive a summons to attend court.

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Dear Editor, I am writing in response to the specious comments made by Cllr. Peter Dempsey in your newspaper dated November 6, 2013 and his call for parents to complain about the proposals made in Leinster House by Deputy Luke Flanagan. As a concerned cannabis consumer myself, I find Cllr. Dempsey's view regarding cannabis to be nothing short of archaic, truth void and they belie his lack of knowledge regarding the true threats facing Irish society.

The basic premise of his argument is 'cannabis automatically leads people onto heroin' and given that this view is not supported by any medical or anecdotal evidence, I would like to ask Cllr. Dempsey how he came to form such opinions. If his claims regarding the number of people in Arklow's cemeteries who 'started out on cannabis' are based on fact, I would be happy to stand corrected should he choose to furnish us with the source of his information.

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Well, another day another debate about drugs. And, Ireland being Ireland, another debate about drugs that immediately descends into the kind of hallucinatory silliness you'd normally associate with a hit of particularly strong acid.

Luke Ming Flanagan's suggestion last week that this country legalise cannabis and save euro 300m in the process has been greeted with derision in some quarters and, let's be honest, that should hardly come as much of a surprise.

But the thing is - and I don't derive any great satisfaction from publicly admitting this - he is probably right, if even for the wrong reasons.

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HIGH-POTENCY cannabis is putting young people who use the drug heavily at risk of stroke, a leading specialist has told an inquest.

Consultant stroke physician Professor Joseph Harbison told Dublin Coroner's Court that doctors at St James's Hospital have seen "five or six cases" of young people having strokes following the use of herbal cannabis in the past three years. The strokes may be linked to the increased potency of cannabis available in Ireland over that period, he said.

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Sir, Joanne Hunt ("Is it time to legalise marijuana?", Health + Family, September 2nd) refers to a book with a dubious title, Marijuana is Safer: so why are we driving people to drink?

Most people are sensible enough to recognise the folly of the question and to realise that "We" are not forcing anyone to drink. People take alcohol and other drugs to alter their mood and perceptions, and with that comes the danger.

A study in the academic journal, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, demonstrated that a marijuana cigarette deposits four times the amount of tar in the human respiratory tract than a tobacco cigarette.

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If We Treat Recreational Drugs in the Same Way As Prescription Ones, We Might Be in a Better State, Says Julia Molony

SO MEDICAL marijuana will soon be added to your local GP's prescription slate. But don't all go rushing down asking for a couple of spliffs every time you've got a stomach ache.

The drug will be available for therapeutic purposes only, initially for treatment of spacisity in Multiple Sclerosis.

However, it has clinical applications for an array of ailments, including seizures and to improve cancer patients' tolerance for treatments such as chemotherapy.

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Doctors will be allowed to prescribe medicinal cannabis under regulations likely to be introduced this year.

It is also to become an offence to possess certain prescription drugs without authorisation. This is in an effort to address the spiralling problem of open dealing in benzodiazepines and other tranquilliser drugs.

Minister of State for Primary Care Alex White has issued consultation documents on his plans and is seeking submissions by the end of the month.

However, the proposals are likely to be welcomed by interested parties who have been seeking such changes for a number of years. They would also bring Ireland into line with other EU states and into compliance with obligations under a number of UN resolutions.

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Sir, Further to Brian O'Connell's article ("Time to clear the air on cannabis", Health & Family, July 6th), I would like to point out that if health outcomes determined drug laws instead of Anglo-American cultural norms, cannabis would be legal.

Unlike alcohol, cannabis has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Like any drug, cannabis can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

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Users believe cannabis - most popular with higher socioeconomic groups - is now socially acceptable, and most people would like it legalised for medicinal use. But should it be?

'I live at home with my dad and I smoke weed in front of him and it doesn't faze him in the least. There is no taboo with it anymore," explains Pauline Scanlon, a singer from Dingle and a habitual cannabis user.

As cannabis users go, Scanlon is in fact in the minority. The majority of users, according to a National Advisory Committee on Drugs and Alcohol (NACD) report published this week, are male. Of those who have tried it in their lifetime, 35 per cent are from higher socioeconomic groups such as professionals, managers or civil servants. Of the general population, one in four 15- to 64- year-olds have tried cannabis in their lifetime, which is an increase of 3 per cent on the last survey conducted in 2006/07.

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The Government is preparing regulations that would legalise cannabis-based medicinal products in limited circumstances, Minister of State at the Department of Health Alex White has said.

The Government is at "an advanced stage in preparing regulations to allow for a very limited availability of cannabis for medical purposes", he said, adding its use would be restricted to a mouth spray.

"We have consulted widely with expert opinion and we have come to the conclusion that there is a case for limited availability," he said, adding the Irish Medicines Board has received a market authorisation application from a pharmaceutical company for Sativex, a cannabis-based mouth spray. The board has recommended the approval of the product for the Irish market.

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Police in the North are investigating whether eight sudden deaths in the province in recent weeks are linked to a potent and toxic batch of the class A drug, Paramethoxyamphetamine, also known as PMA.

Seven of the deaths occured around Belfast and an eighth in the north west.

The PSNI advised people to be particularly careful if they are offered green coloured tablets with a logo of a crown or castle on them.

The North's chief medical officer Dr Michael McBride said that those who took the pills may have believed they were taking ecstasy.

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The term of the Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan, has just been extended by two years. While seen as an effective officer who is across his brief, making the most of reduced resources, Callinan has also had the good fortune to be in office at a time that crime is falling.

Recorded crime peaked in 2008 and has reduced yearly since, with the overall drop at 13 per cent to the end of 2011. Homicide and gun crime have both almost halved, while drug crime is down by more than 25 per cent. Burglary is the only crime to buck the recent falling trends. Public-order offences, sex crimes, assaults, thefts and others are all down. While the received wisdom is that crime rises in recession, this is not happening in many countries.

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A new study shows a significant drop in IQ for long-term users who smoked cannabis from adolescence into adulthood. Here, some young adults discuss their experiences with the drug.‘I FIRST STARTED smoking cannabis when I was 12," says Stephen, a 26-year-old from Ballymun, in north Dublin. "It took me away from the life that I was in. I came from a big family and had an awful lot of angry people around me and a lot of drink and drugs. I used to pray to God to take me out and put me in another family. Cannabis took me away for a few hours.

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CANNABIS can lower the IQ of young teenagers and may cause permanent mental impairment, research has shown.

The most persistent users suffer an average eight- point decline in IQ between adolescence and adulthood, according to the study of more than 1,000 participants.

Quitting or cutting down on cannabis later in life did not fully reverse the impact on those who started taking the drug in their early teens.

But the study found no evidence of similar problems affecting people who only took up cannabis as adults.

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On New Year's day, six bodies were found in different parts of Mexico, a relatively peaceful day, if Mexican newspaper La Reforma's usually more metronomic 'Ejecutometro' (execution meter) is considered. Revered Mexican author Carlos Fuentes, a man noted for coy narrative ('to be interpreted by the reader with no endorsement from the teller', according to the New York Times), recently addressed the issue of drugs. He was, for once, quite forward.

'Sometimes we win, sometimes they win', stated the former diplomat. While there have been slight improvements in infamous areas such as Ciudad Juarez, the corpses hanging from bridges, a cartel signature, are spreading into other areas. Areas near Mexico City, once thought to be an oasis for diplomats, corporations and the wealthy, such as Acapulco and Cuernavaca, have suffered recently. A burned out vehicle containing two decapitated bodies was discovered at the entrance to an expensive Mexico City shopping centre.

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Recent labelling of cannabis as a major 'problem drug' may surprise those who have smoked the odd joint in the past. But a new, highly potent strain now being grown in Ireland is more harmful than the drug's benign image would suggest, writes CARL O'BRIEN

IRELAND'S FASTEST-growing problem drug is not being sourced from the poppy fields of Afghanistan or remote Moroccan hillsides. It is not arriving into the country in steel shipping containers or being dropped off at remote harbours in the dead of night.

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