A medical marijuana bill scheduled for a vote in the Irish Dáil (lower House of Parliament) has moved forward to Ireland’s Health Committee for amendments after last-minute support from two political parties.
Despite the Health Committee’s recommendation in July to kill the legislation, two major political parties have since thrown their support behind the medical marijuana bill. This surprising turn of events completely sidestepped the vote altogether and sent the legislation to the Health Committee for amendments to move it ahead in the Parliamentary process.
“This time last week I was convinced that the bill would have been defeated,” said TD Gino Kenny, the author of the legislation, in an interview with Marijuana.com. “All the main political parties were saying that they were going with the recommendations of the Health Committee. When you hear that, it’s pretty conclusive.”
Kenny went on to add that his realism regarding the legislation was a simple numbers game. They did not have the votes to pass the legislation at that point for it to move forward. “Then something extraordinary happened,” said Kenny. “Two hours before the debate, one…