Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The fact that we have had so many Deputies competing to contribute to the discussion is reflective of the fact that everybody takes the matter incredibly seriously. There is a large inherent contradiction in this with the silence surrounding legalised opioids, which make billions of euro for pharmaceutical companies, and drugs like Lariam, which are legal but do enormous damage, held against the queasiness that exists around the legalisation of cannabis, which is safe and non-addictive. It has been proven to have huge medicinal benefits.

I do not need to be convinced of the hypocrisy that surrounds this issue and there are arguments that I have made many times before. As one of only eight Deputies who supported a Bill from a former Deputy, Luke "Ming" Flanagan, to legalise cannabis in all circumstances, I clearly support the use of cannabis in medical circumstances. We must be honest as that is not what today's debate is about. This is about how to make cannabis available as quickly as possible to our citizens who so desperately need it. I am mindful that we sat here almost a year ago and people desperate for that treatment were led to believe it could be granted with a wave of a hand; it was implied that if the Bill went through Second Stage, it would be sorted within a few weeks. That did not happen. If, as a result of some games being played today, we have another year of being in the same position, it will amount to a scandalous betrayal of people who need this treatment.

I reject some of the analysis of the health committee on the Bill. I have read its report and the reply from Solidarity-People Before Profit. There are qualms among the committee members about the potential side-effects and the need for more peer-reviewed research and so on but those are not reasons not to advance the Bill. There are plenty of ways in which the committee could have advanced the issues. I also accept the points made that this legislation is deeply flawed. It is a fact, although I wish it were not so. It is in the way it has been drafted and there are fundamental problems with the Bill in its current form. They need to be addressed or else we would be lying to people in the Gallery and outside. The Bill has not been delayed because of some plot to delay the legalisation of medicinal cannabis but maybe civil servants who are slow at responding to issues have used poor drafting to delay it. That should not happen.

Today's debate seeks to move this forward. The health committee debated making access more readily available through secondary legislation and so on. In order to force whatever mechanism is required for delivery - I do not care if it is secondary legislation - this Bill should remain on the Order Paper. It should go to Committee Stage and keep the pressure on so we will not be here in a year's time in the same position.

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