A group of over 20 senior doctors have voiced major concerns about an “increasingly relaxed” attitude towards cannabis in Ireland.
A number of senior doctors have penned a letter voicing their concerns about the attitude towards cannabis in Ireland. Legislators, the media and a number of commentators were criticised in the letter for having an “increasingly relaxed” attitude towards the drug.
In a letter published in The Irish Times, the Cannabis Risk Alliance argue that society has “taken its eye off the ball” in relation to the potentially harmful effects of the drug.
Speaking about the negative effects of the drug, Dr Bobby Smyth, of Trinity College Dublin, said: “Cannabis is increasingly perceived to be a harmless drug, whereas in reality it is the main drug causing new addiction-related and psychiatric cases presenting in Ireland today.
“We are gravely concerned that the Government is ploughing ahead without objectively considering the full effects of cannabis or even properly communicating the risks posed by the drug to society at large.”
Smyth was one of the senior doctors who signed the letter.
According to IrishHealth, he also called on the Government to begin ‘an urgent and unbiased examination’ of the evidence of escalating cannabis use and cannabis-related harms in Ireland.
Medicinal cannabis campaigner Vera Twomey has voiced her displeasure with the letter, and has tweeted that she has called into LiveLine to discuss the subject.
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