Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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145. To ask the Minister for Health the proposed timeframe for the establishment of the medical cannabis access programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43453/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Considerable progress is being made in relation to the introduction of the Cannabis for Medical Use Access Programme, the lack of availability of cannabis products in Ireland remains the most critical barrier to full implementation of the Medical Cannabis Access Programme. Full establishment is dependent on the commercial operators making these products available in Ireland.

Whilst medical cannabis products are not medicines, ensuring that such products meet appropriate quality standards when they are made available to the Irish market is a critical aspect of facilitating safe access to medical cannabis for Irish-based patients. Department of Health officials are working intensively on this issue to ensure a supply of appropriate medical cannabis products from other EU Member States and further afield to meet the needs of Irish patients. However, the Department of Health has no control in relation to business decisions taken by commercial product manufacturers and has no powers to compel such companies to supply their products to Irish market.

Until these products are made available in Ireland it remains a matter for the prescriber, who has successfully applied for a Ministerial Licence under the Misuse of Drugs Acts 1977 to 2016, and their patient, to source the prescribed medical cannabis-based product. It is understood that patients who have been prescribed such products under Ministerial Licence have sourced them from a pharmacy in the Netherlands.