Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Is work being done by the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland to study other populations and approaches in places like Portugal, for example? Is anyone looking at the Portuguese model and the impacts on the population? Do the witnesses have any information on that? Is it their professional opinion that if there were magical powers within a particular compound that has been around for generations, they would have been noticed before now? I am concerned by many of the claims being made for cannabis. I am very much in favour of a compassionate approach to drug use in respect of the links between addiction and mental health but some of the claims being made are such that patients would not need any other tablets if they had access to cannabis. That is the narrative at the moment but many of us are concerned about the erosion of the good work that professionals such as the witnesses have done over the years. As with our discussion of the Kardashian effect last week, we are concerned that some celebrity's opinion is considered equal to a body of evidence. I find that concerning not just in this case but in every case of medical treatment.