The Irish Man Arrested For $2 Worth of Cannabis
The Irish Man Arrested For $2 Worth of Cannabis
Highlighting the hypocrisy of the current regulations Ireland has adopted.
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Friends,
A recent story that appeared in the Irish media involving the medical use of cannabis really hit a nerve with me.
As nations such as Canada and many American states continue to legalize cannabis for both adult-use and medical purposes — there remain many nations around the world who are intent on maintaining prohibition despite the fact that Canada has clearly demonstrated that the legalization of cannabis:
Reduces the youth consumption of cannabis.
Creates thousands of new jobs in rural and urban areas.
Generates millions, if not billions of dollars in taxation revenue.
In spite of this, my own home nation of Ireland continues to ignore all of these benefits in favor of the continuous waste of resources to prevent adults from being able to decide for themselves whether they would prefer to consume cannabis over alcohol — a substance that has plagued Ireland since the times when colonialism first came into effect.
To highlight the hypocrisy of the current regulations the Irish state has adopted, let’s turn our attention to a recent ruling involving Paul Lee — an elderly Irish man who has had issues with opiate addiction in the past, and as a result of this history, he choose to consume cannabis in favor of the medication he had been prescribed to treat his osteoporosis.
As someone who spent over 6 months working in the downtown Eastside of Vancouver managing a supply chain for a cannabis retail store that was seeking to provide low-cost cannabis to those who had fallen on hard times and were using opiates such as heroin and fentanyl — this story is all too familiar.
All across the world today, the number of people who are seeking to use cannabis in favor of opiates is growing, despite the fact that cannabis remains illegal in a majority of these nations with recent research suggesting that the availability of legal cannabis products results in an estimated 25% reduction in the number of overdose deaths from opiates.
In the case in question, the accused was found in possession of less than €4 worth of cannabis (0.25/grams) — roughly the same quantity as seen below. 👇
📸: Cllr. Owen Hanley
Having had the means to compare the quality of cannabis available in Ireland vs in Canada, I would be very surprised if this quantity of cannabis would even be worth $2 CAD — not even enough to purchase a coffee from Starbucks.
To summarize: Ireland, a nation viewed by many as having extremely liberal policies remains intent on prosecuting its elderly citizens who are seeking out natural ways to deal with pain as opposed to taking opiates which have and continue to devastate many parts of the world due to their addictive nature.
To look at this situation through the lens of a glass half full, sometimes it takes stories such as this to remind us all of the progress that has been made in North America, and although there are of course certain regulations that make little to no sense within the cannabis industry — what we have today is many multiples better than what a majority of people across the world currently have access to.
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