On December 1st Gino Kenny TD People Before Profit successfully moved a bill, that seeks to legalize cannabis for medicinal use, through the first stage of the Dail process.

If passed, the bill will have a huge impact on the lives of many people who suffer from a range of chronic and incurable illnesses and pain. Gino has campaigned to legislate in order to help children and others who suffer from a range of illnesses.These include:

# Dravet’s Syndrome, an illness that causes severe fits and can be fatal.

# Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Giloma, a rare brain tumour.

# Multiple Sclerosis.

# Fibromyalgia

# Numerous other conditions including rare and difficult to treat tumours and various forms of pain disorders. In these cases there is overwhelming evidence that cannabis for medical use could make a huge difference for the quality of life for sufferers and their families by relieving pain.

This bill needs to be put into law without delay. People Before Profit are urging everyone to contact their local TD and tell them to support this bill at all stages to ensure that the legislation is put in place urgently so that people who desperately need treatment can do so without hindrance.

Many will be helped by this. There are people around the country whose pain and suffering can be greatly alleviated by the use of natural products that are deemed illegal because of ignorance and indifference and also because of the influence of “only for profit” interests in the pharmaceutical industry and their allies in the political establishment.

Children like Ava Barry are  suffering additional pain that can relatively easily be reduced drastically. The reality of this was  movingly narrated by Ava’s mother Vera Twomey when she spoke at a public meeting in Cork city, hosted by People Before Profit. The meeting was also addressed by Tom Curran. Tom, is a vocal campaigner on this topic and was partner of the late Marie Fleming who bravely fought the power of the state for her right to die.

This meeting was  part of a series  of such events throughout the country featuring Gino Kenny as part of his and Vera’s and Tom’s and People Before Profit’s fight for the urgent passing of this extremely important legislation.

This campaign was  greatly boosted by the recent actions of determined mother Vera who decided that she and Ava could no longer wait for  the political process to put things in place to facilitate the alleviation of suffering. She decided to walk to Dublin from her home in County Cork and soon caught the attention of the national media  and then the global media, forcing the government to be seen to act. She demonstrated that People Power is way more effective than political posturing. She got them to be seen to be moving on this issue. Now they must not be allowed to obfuscate and stall while people suffer. It is imperative that we move all the way on this legislation without delay.