Tag Archives: 420

This afternoon.

Garden of Remembrance, Dublin 1.

Turned out spliffing.

Happy 420 all.

Jimi Cullen – ‘Legalise Don’t Criminalise’

Featuring reefer-deranged members of Ireland’s Cannabis Activists Alliance.

Off their bins, blummin’ potheads.

*sinks treble vodka*

Jimi Cullen

Meanwhile…

Johnny Green

Is he a herb?

Is he a plant?

No, he’s Johnny Green.

Mild-mannered JohnnyNYC by day.

Caped cannabis crusader by late afternoon.

The stoner we deserve.

Fake reefer news is his kryptonite.

Literally high flying.

You get the picture.

Johnny writes:

The science has been well settled, proved, tested, tested again, debated, argued, calculated, counted, and taxes returned.

There can be no more sneering at its potential, nor can the inevitable need for proper and honest legislation for Irish Weed be ignored.

Last week Solidarity People Before Profit’s Gino Kenny reintroduced medical cannabis into your news cycle, that was conveniently spun off by a dismissively immature response from your Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

So, the first question for Broadsheet readers to ponder on, was this the outcome of bad manners, or was it a deliberate strategic ploy

Slightly more than two years ago, Simon Harris, The Irish Health Minister announced that Ireland would create a medical cannabis programme for its patients who couldn’t be helped by the existing conventional treatment for their health conditions.

From April this year: The Irish Government revealed that it has finally identified and issued an import license to a Danish medical cannabis firm.The license was reportedly issued back in January.

My other questions for Broadsheet readers are;

Why was this initiative not launched into the public domain as aggressively as “Welfare Cheaters Cheat Us All”?

Why has the Media not opened it up and spread it out like a cheap carpet at a street market?

Why is Simon Harris not sharing the details of the license granted?

And why are all these discussions and inspections internal to his department?

While in my honest opinion I do not believe there to be any smoking gun here, certainly not the arsenal around a Rural Broadband Tender, but I am compelled again to ask: why the secrecy?

This column is not intended to promote one market over another, recreational over medicinal, but until it is widely prescribed and the cost of the alternatives, including the provision of front-line services are factored in, deciding on a valid and genuine figure could be reckless.

Obviously, we can only estimate the potential size of the Irish cannabis market; however, I work with cannabis growers and retailers in newly legalised markets, therefore I stand over my expertise and qualification to have some reasonableness to the following valuation.

Just this week a confirmed intake of one billion since the introduction of the legislation that legalised cannabis in Colorado (with a population of 5.5 million it provides a viable benchmark on this occasion.)

One billion in Revenue in its first five years. That is One Billion in a new, just out of the ground industry.

It is not inconceivable to any rational mind that domestic output and earnings in Ireland could match a similar value, with tourism activity alongside exporting to the EU; a market not available to the growers in Colorado, all on your own, and without the need for National Children’s Hospital level spend and timeline.

For the pedants circling this column, let me recreate a value per head to match the given example of Colorado’s experience.

$1,000,000,000 / 5,500,000 = 181.82 per person.

Yesterday’s count in the Republic of Ireland is 4,845,530 and yesterday’s US$ closing price .8899

4,845,530 x (.8899* 181.82) 161.80 = 784,006,754.00.

Or as Vanessa Foran might say 784 million yoyos.

Ireland already has it all to grow on a large industrial scale and export a simple Seed-to-Sale cannabis industry, like what the Irish Dairy Farmers achieved with “Kerrygold.”

All you are missing is the political will and vision, and the transparency that needs be demanded for what is comfortably a three quarters of billion euro industry, and an industry that can generate income within months of legalisation and with little investment, start-up costs, or the need for tax exemptions and grants; or those pesky KPMG reports.

It is for these reasons that I am being deliberately provocative about Simon Harris’ shyness with the licence granted to a Danish entity.

Irish Cannabis is a potential clean energy multi-million revenue industry, on its own, and at all levels of market participation.

Nor are the additional benefits of the mentioned medical treatment and prescription savings that the Irish State has proved again and again it is not capable of controlling, or fit to manage, to be underestimated and taken lightly.

Yet Simon Harris is given the charge of signing away Ireland’s chance of growing its own cannabis, selling its own produce, providing employment, extracting employment taxes, along with an Agri sector desperate for alternatives to beef and dairy farming.

This licence, even though the ink is dried, must be opened up to the public, and at the very least examined and questioned without restrictions by the Public Accounts Committee.

Everyone else seems to be watching what Simon Harris is doing, and here is my final question; why aren’t you?

Johnny Green will attempt to keep Broadsheet readers up-to-date on the growing cannabis industry worldwide. Follow Johnny here on twitter for updates.

Johnny Green illustration by Alan O’Regan

Saturday.

Custom House Quay, Dublin 1

Drug-crazed ‘revellers’ celebrate 420 in the sunshine with Bob Marley and a humongous spliff.

Johnny Keenan (top) writes:

I know it’s 3 days after it happened but no stoner and medical cannabis activist were left unturned when standing up and standing out for the legalisation of cannabis on this lovely green isle took place…

Arrest them all.

*giggle*

Update:

Also on the quay.

A blurry belated hello to Kenny Tynan (Activist for Medical Cannabis) and Lorraine Kennedy (Director and Producer of patientsofcannabis.com).

In fairness.

 

 

 

Cannabis oil activist Alex Beizart, who has died aged 54, spoke at last month’s 420 rally (above).

Johnny Keenan writes:

Today we say farewell to Alex Baizert. A true activist for the cause of cannabis oil for medicinal use and a supporter for the use of cannabis in general.

Alex was a considerate gentleman with a great sense of humour. He suffered with a brain tumor and campaigned for the legalisation of cannabis oil because it worked in easing the symptom of his condition: epileptic seizures.

Because he was such a supporter of countless campaigns and gave personal support to other campaigners he knew all the relevant people associated with the cannabis movement.

He wrote to all the TDs, senators and councillors in the country to make them aware of the benefits of cannabis oil for medicinal use.

He always spoke articulately eloquently diplomatically and passionately. Articulating to the point where The Oireachtas Health Committee had to listen to this voice of reason.

He was granted a licence to gain cannabis oil only last week.

Instead of taking his medicine and going home he promised to continue to campaign for other people who needed the same medicine.

Unfortunately Alex had a bad fall on Friday, April 27.

He passed away on last Sunday at Lourdes Hospital Drogheda. His funeral took place today at a crematorium in Dublin.

The compassionate and cannabis community of Ireland want to extend our deepest condolences to Alex’s family and close friends.

If you are in Drogheda this evening (after 5pm) Nolan’s Bar will play host to remember and pay great respects to a friend and hero. Donations can be made here

His kind heart, mind and spirit will never be forgotten by the people he met and helped along his journey.

Alex Baizert Memorial Page (Facebook)

Previously: In Awe Of Vera

This afternoon.

Custom House Quay, Dublin 1

Unnamed reefer fan at the Cloud on the Quay event celebrating International Cannabis Day which peaks at 4.20pm with a spark up by up to 3,000 sun-drenched tokers.

More as we get it.

*giggles uncontrollably*

Pic: Niall Neligan

Earlier: Money In The Pot

Happy 420 To One And All

Meanwhile…

Many of these people are high.

From top: price comparisons between Dublin and Denver,Colorado where cannabis use has been legalised; Niall Neligan

Niall Neligan writes:

Today, the 20th of April marks an unusual date in the international calendar when cannabis activists across the world celebrate “4/20” or International Cannabis Day.

Last year approximately USD $1.5 Billion worth of medicinal and recreational cannabis was sold lawfully in Colorado.

Cumulatively, that amounts to almost USD $4.5 Billion in legal sales since regulation commenced on 1st January 2014. However, it is the tax revenue from sales which has captured the attention of state houses throughout the U.S. and beyond.

Since regulation commenced, Colorado has generated $683 million in additional revenue, with last year’s total amounting to USD $247 million, the majority of which is earmarked for public school funding.

Additionally, there are now approximately 18,500 people working either directly or indirectly in the legal cannabis sector in that state.

Another interesting point is that the price of a gramme of cannabis in the regulated states has been declining over the last eighteen months and the purchase price in Denver now averages about $7.79, which is in stark contrast to the $21.63 (€17.50) which a gramme commands on the illicit market in Dublin.

Whatever way you look at it; the sliding price has had the added bonus of pushing the criminal gangs out of the cannabis market in Colorado as the margins are no longer viable there.

The data from Colorado paints a rather bleak picture of just how much prohibition is costing Ireland not just in terms of revenue but also the day to day costs of prohibition in terms of prosecutions, Garda manpower hours, and court time.

The actual size of Ireland’s illicit market in cannabis is anyone’s guess; estimates range from €700 million to €1 Billion. Statistics from the CSO tells us that there were approximately 16,880 controlled drug offences in 2017.

Some 56 percent of those were prosecutions for possession of cannabis for personal use only under Section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Acts 1977-2017.

To put this in plain language, the majority of drug prosecutions are of individuals who possess cannabis for personal use. In a regulated market, that figure would dramatically drop saving the state a considerable amount of money.

Furthermore, the cost of prohibition would be reversed into a tax positive as revenues from regulated sales would accrue to the state.

Within the next few years, several European states such as the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Germany are likely to introduce regulation for adult use. The question is, what impact will this process of regulation have on the Irish government?

The Irish State regrettably has a dubious reputation for being an outlier for social conservatism when common sense dictates otherwise.

Given the sea-changes happening elsewhere, the government cannot afford to stand still as other states join The Green Rush and reap the enormous economic benefits that accrues from regulation.

The solution is for the Government to introduce a comprehensive piece of legislation which regulates cannabis for both medical and adult use.

To arrive at that point the government must accept that prohibition of cannabis has failed.

Rather than reducing the supply of cannabis, supply has increased under the prohibition regime and demand has not abated. Put simply, the illicit market in cannabis exists because of prohibition.

No drug has ever been made safer in the hands of criminal gangs or unregulated amateur growers. By ending prohibition, and implementing a strict regulatory framework, the state will at least offer some protection to those adults who choose to use cannabis and more importantly to those who are self-medicating out of illness and relying on illicit cannabis obtained from the black market.

Regulation will transition the current unregulated and illicit market estimated to be worth approximate €1Billion per annum into a regulated market.

If properly done, a regulated market could generate as much as €300 million in additional revenue for the state each year and create 15,000 new jobs by 2025.

Additionally, regulation would have enormous social benefits, firstly it would take cannabis out of the hands of criminal gangs and amateur growers.

Secondly, it would afford greater protection to children and adolescents who experiment with cannabis. In the illicit and unregulated market, there are no protections.

Under prohibition, an adolescent doesn’t require an ID to buy cannabis, all he or she needs to know is where to buy it and when. Regulation on the other hand provides those protections by limiting access in a way that prohibition has failed to do.

In the unregulated illicit market which currently exists, there are no health warnings on packaging, no content controls, no limitations placed on purchasing and no safety guidelines on growing. Regulation would change that for the better as Colorado has proved.

Therefore, the time has come for the Government to do the right thing and initiate a Regulation of Cannabis (Medicinal & Adult Use) Bill. Incrementalism only delays the inevitable; delay now has a measured cost. Sensible regulation works, nonsensical prohibition does not.

Only comprehensive legislation and well-considered regulatory rules will change that, and change it for the better.

Today is as good as any day to remind them that change is in the air and on the streets across the world, as ‘cannabactivists’ mark 4/20 like never before.

Niall Neligan is a Barrister and Lecturer in Criminal Law at the Dublin Institute of Technology. His research field is Drug Policy Regulation and Law Reform.

Earlier: Happy 420 To One And All

Illegal plants!

Today (April 20) is International Cannabis Day.

Colum O’Dwyer writes:

This day last year, I took a bunch of photos in in Hyde Park in London on 420 where a whole bunch of ‘marginal’ types gathered…thought they ,might be of interest…

420 in Hyde Park (Colum O’Dwyer)

Meanwhile….

This afternoon.

Custom House Quay, Dublin 1 from Midday.

Previously: Free Friday?

Friday April 20, is International Cannabis Day.

And the forecast is spliffing.

Sean at The Hemp Kitchen, Capel Street, Dublin 1 writes:

Mark Emery, Canada’s ‘Prince of Pot’ will be speaking at Dublin’s official 420 cannabis rally on the Customs House Quay, Dublin.

Dublin 420 – A Cloud on the Quay expects over 3,000 supporters and advocates with Live music, talks and street entertainment.

Marc has been at the forefront of the Canadian cannabis industry for over 25 years. His business Cannabis Culture, Vancouver has been the hub for activists and information about all things about the plant.

The Hemp Kitchen

420?

Meanwhile…

Tomorrow night.

Stories and songs about the ‘erb.

The Grand Social, Upper Liffey Street, Dublin 1 at 9pm.

The Baked Potatoes Show