Ireland’s medicinal cannabis scheme needs overhaul, advocate says

Prohibition Partners says patients are being done a ‘disservice’ while state is losing out on economic benefits of an industry predicted to be worth €3.2 billion by 2025

Ireland signed the Medicinal Cannabis Access Programme into law in 2019, proposing a pilot system for five years which would allow patients to access a handful of medicinal cannabis therapies when other conventional treatments failed. Picture: Getty

The Irish government should immediately reform its existing medicinal cannabis scheme, an industry expert has said.

Stephen Murphy, co-founder and chief executive at cannabis market intelligence firm Prohibition Partners, said he was often contacted by patients in Ireland looking to use medicinal cannabis for a variety of reasons. But he said the law here was so restrictive that it “really doesn’t exist”, which he said was “a sincere disservice” to patients.

Murphy also told the Business Post there was potential for Ireland to benefit from a wave of innovation and jobs in the European medicinal cannabis industry which is predicted to grow to €3.2 billion by 2025.