This morning.
Grand Canal Docks, Dublin 2
A photo call organised by Fweed to promote awareness of the Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016 ahead of the Global Medical Cannabis Summit starting tomorrow at the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin.
Somebody ARREST them.
Pics: Thorsten Recker
Meanwhile…
Multiple Sclerosis suffer Marie Fleming and her partner Tom Curran with family leaving the Four Courts in the High Court in Dublin in 2013
During a discussion on medicinal cannabis on RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Sean O’Rourke this morning, Tom Curran shared his experiences sourcing cannabis for his partner Multiple Sclerosis suffer Marie Fleming.
Sean O’Rourke: “If I could turn to you, Tom Curran, you used to grow marijuana yourself and used it to treat your late partner Marie, who had MS. Now, tell me about her use of it, and how it helped her.”
Tom Curran: “Well, I don’t have a medical background, and I know absolutely nothing, I suppose, about the chemistry of the plant, but when Marie’s MS progressed, the prescription medication worked to a point in helping her with her spasms, which are just like seizures, and also with the neurological pain, which she had constantly.
“We were aware, via, I suppose forums from around the world that cannabis was used extensively for both pain and spasms, so we tried it, because nothing else was working. And the results were remarkable, you’d have to see it to believe it.
“When Marie smoked, we originally bought on the street, but when Marie smoked, and the spasms were coming on, her whole body would relax within twenty seconds. Now, the pain medication that she was using, and the spasm medication she was using, just didn’t work. It also, then, reduced the pain. So she was comfortable, and we grew it after that, rather than buy it.”
O’Rourke: “How frequently did she use it, then, to deal with these spasms and pain?”
Tom: “She would smoke maybe, probably, twice a day. But I also learned how to process and extract, the CBD and the THC out of it, and we used that, I made capsules from that, and we used that for a long-term effect, because with the smoking, we found out the effect would wear off after a couple of hours. But by using the capsules, she got maybe eight to ten hours…”
O’Rourke: “And you made those yourself?”
Tom: “Yes.”
O’Rourke: “And how did you go about growing it?”
Tom: “Very simply, we have a beautiful garden, one of the things Marie loved was her garden, she was very keen on gardening. And it was very simple to grow it. I didn’t use any sophisticated methods, I grew it on the windowsill upstairs.
“We had a bedroom upstairs with an exposed window that the sun shone in on most of the day when there was sun, but it took a certain amount of experimental work. On finding, for instance, the right strains, because there are many different strains of cannabis. So it was a matter of finding the right one for both the spasm control, and the pain control. And this went on for a period of about ten years before Marie died.”
[Later, when questioned on possible issues of regulation and control]
Tom: “Well, a couple of parallels I could draw, our own medical system here, widely uses products that are derivatives of opium. In fact, some of them are almost directly heroin. They’re well-controlled. They’re far more dangerous a recreational drug than cannabis is. So, if we can control that, as a medicine…”
O’Rourke: “Are you talking about something like methadone now?”
Tom: “No. Things that people are given for pain control, Fentenyl, which has just been brought out on the market now, that’s fifty times more dangerous than heroin, these sort of things can be controlled. And if we can control those as a medicine, and we’re aware of the therapeutical benefits, and the medicinal benefits of cannabis, why can’t we just control them the same way?”
Listen here
Meanwhile…
The ‘erb in all its manifestations.
Via Hempture.ie
The first weekend after reefer is legalised here, hospital admissions will plummet.
The Alcohol industry will go after these sweet hippies with everything they have.
legalize it , Jah will provide it …
So brilliant, so true and such an indictment of our ‘care’.
Ever tried to talk to a doctor about vitamin B, C, D, aloe vera, turmeric, CalMag etc?
Eyes glaze over.
spot on pip . everyone in Ireland should be on good fish oils to balance out all the bad stuff in our diets.
know people late 30’s who go for the funded check up made to feel like freakish hypochondriacs..
prevention cheaper than cure .
Think of the tax take. Who needs Apple?
The painful process of getting the state to stop treating people as innocent and incompetent:
Done
– decriminalising homosexuality
– Divorce
– same sex marriage
To do
– decriminalise cannabis
– legalise assisted suicide
– equal rights for parents over children
Another 25 years and we’ll be fine
sad but true. keep on keepin’ on!
I’ve said it before; if Joe Duffy listeners are warming to the idea of legalising weed, it might not be that far off.
Before anyone picks on it, I missed adding “increased reproductive choices/rights” in the to do list. Hopefully before my daughter becomes old enough to feel like a second class citizen.
Divorce is NOT done. 4 years legal separation before you can actually be granted a divorce? DONE?
More reading on subject please.
That is genuine madness. I can understand there being a mandatory one-year separation, but FOUR years!! That’s a significant chunk of your life to be living in limbo.
This is great, the movement is on. Medical legalisation first then recreational. Just like Canada. The government and the civil servants can only delay the inevitable. To put it bluntly once Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon legalised – the toothpaste was out of the tube and it’s not going back in!
bluntly… hee hee .. pity we can’t think for ourselves though.
It’s Fentanyl
And while they’re at it, how about lifting the ridiculous ban on Kratom too? And…..how long have you got?
pass the khat man
C’est tout Bon!