Why is the Irish Government engaging in a campaign of “Fear Mongering” around Cannabis products?
Currently across Ireland parents & guardians of children in primary school are receiving messages designed to spread fear and hate of cannabis and cannabis consumers. I know this as I am one of those parents who received this message via my daughter's school update app on https://www.aladdin.ie/ .
According to their website “Aladdin Schools is an award winning online Management Information System (MIS) / Student Information System (SIS) specifically designed to simplify administration in primary schools”.
In the message (seen below) parents are warned by the Food Safety Authority Ireland (FSAI)“to be extremely vigilant” to the dangers of their kids getting access to and eating jelly sweets containing significant amounts of THC.
The warning message which was sent to parents from primary schools as requested by the Department for Education
They say the warning comes as seizures of these products increase and because of a number of children who have been hospitalised as a result of consuming these products. They also imply they do not know how these kids get access to these products which is a complete LIE! . Here is an article from 2019 highlighting how easy buying cannabis can be for kids.
What they should really be saying in the message to the parents is “because of ignorant politicians who won't get the finger out (AKA Stephen Donnelly and Frank Feighan) and clean up the mess caused by prohibition your small Mary or Johnny is at risk of consuming easily obtained, unregulated, cannabis jellies. These jellies because of their unregulated nature can contain unknown substances which could be far more dangerous than any compound from cannabis.
They should also draft another letter for the two ministers mentioned above to regulate the cannabis industry and put some rules in place like an age limit, advertising regulations, packing regulations and other regulations which not only protect the consumers but protect our younger generations too. Cannabis is already ubiquitous in Ireland and for the young teenager is readily available. Most kids these days can easily arrange to buy their cannabis using their smartphone using a number of very popular apps including snapchat. Often at the other end of the phone is another kid facilitating the sale for a larger criminal gang.
How long more will the government continue to keep their heads buried in the sand on this issue? How long more will we see Irish taxes wasted on the campaigns of misinformation? How long more will patients suffer with effective access to this plant and the products produced from it? However long it might take we don’t know but what we do know is due to this unwillingness to change our drug policy by the government organised crime gangs are benefitting to the tune of Billions of euro and are free use the kids to sell cannabis to other kids and even adults too.