Independent ministers could vote against Fine Gael during a medicinal cannabis bill next week after saying they will exercise their right to a free vote on the issue.

The decision was made by Independent Alliance TDs at yesterday’s cabinet meeting.

As part of an opposition bill put down by the Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit, the Dáil will tomorrow hold a two-hour debate on whether to allow cannabis use for specific medical reasons.

The debate on the bill, which will undergo a Dáil vote next week, has been sought by AAA-PBP TDs Gino Kenny and Brid Smith in response to concerns that patients with certain conditions are needlessly living with chronic pain.

Dr. Ilo Leppik has dedicated his career to searching for ways to improve treatment for seizures that afflict those with epilepsy.

But lately, Leppik has turned his attention to another kind of patient: the furry, four-legged kind.

Dogs have higher rates of epilepsy than humans do, and Leppik believes a cannabis pill could do for canines what it’s done for humans.

He is pushing to amend Minnesota’s medical marijuana law to allow veterinarians to prescribe the treatment for animals.

“It could be available to dogs in the same way it is available to humans,” he said.

South Africa may legally regulate medical cannabis as soon as April 2017.

The South African Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health has said that the government will amend the Medicines and Related Substances Act 1965 (MRS Act). Under the reformed legislation, cannabis – known locally as “dagga” - will be downgraded from a banned Schedule 7 drug to a Schedule 6 drug, meaning it can be prescribed. The revision of the law is to be drafted by late January 2017 and may be implemented by April 2017, according to South Africa’s News24.

Seantrel Henderson, a third-year offensive lineman for the Buffalo Bills, is facing his second suspension of the season for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse rules. But Henderson’s case is unusual because it raises fresh questions about the approach to pain management and changing attitudes about the legalization of marijuana.

Cannabis is very much in the news at the moment. This week a cross party group of MPs have called for cannabis to be legalised in Britain, in the US almost 25% of Americans can now access medical cannabis after several more states passed its use in the recent elections, and in the Republic of Ireland, the mother of a seriously ill child decided to walk to Dublin to demand a change in the country’s legal position on the use of medical cannabis for children. 

In 2014, the New England Journal of Medicine ran a propaganda piece by Dr. Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) titled Adverse Health Effects of Marijuana Use. The article is occasionally referenced by neo-prohibitionists to demonstrate the position of the federal government that cannabis has no known medical use in the United States. This position is beyond absurd, it is dangerous to both public health and the role of science in the public square. Medical cannabis is legal in over half of the states in the union.

The survey shows growing support for the legalisation of the drug when recommended by a doctor.

A large majority of the Irish population supports the legalisation of cannabis when recommended for medical reasons by a doctor.

A new survey shows that 92% of the Irish population support the use of the drug for medical purposes.

Munster showed the highest level of support for the legalisation of the dr

The research, conducted by Rec C and commissioned by non-profit health organisation Help Not Harm, shows that levels of support are highest in Munster counties at 94%.

Women also showed high favourability towards the move, compared with 90% of men.

Tel Aviv-based Syqe Medical says its device revolutionizes precise delivery of the drug, already in use in Haifa hospital.

In a world first, Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Tel Aviv-based Syqe Medical said they signed a distribution and cooperation agreement to market medical cannabis in an inhaler.

Under the agreement, Teva will be the exclusive marketer and distributor in Israel of an inhaler developed by Syqe Medical for the delivery of medical cannabis. The accord marks the first time that a major global pharma company has agreed to market a medical cannabis product, according to Syqe.

Rich and Kim Muszynski know when their 5-year-old daughter, Abby, is about to have a grand mal seizure because her pupils enlarge, and she'll seem to fixate at something in the distance that only she can see.

Then it starts. Abby's extremities shake. She gasps for air. 

By the time she turned 3, Abby had tried about eight different anti-seizure medications. None of them worked very well. Panicked to see their daughter getting worse and worse, the Muszynskis drove three hours to Orlando to see Dr. Ngoc Minh Le, a board certified pediatric neurologist and epileptologist.

Zurich residents with illness may have a card that allows them to acquire cannabis more easily.

The medical cannabis user should be able to obtain it more easily in the city of Zurich. The City Council of Zurich followed up a postulate of the Greens by 80 votes to 36 last Wednesday .

It is already possible for patients to calm their pain by means of cannabis products. However, they require an authorization from the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH).

But the procedure to obtain the latter is so complicated that many patients go and supply themselves with cannabis by illegal means, explained the Zurich Greens. Criminalizing these people makes no sense.