From today's IACM bulletin:

Lawyer claims Ireland is in breach of the Schengen Agreement over cannabis use by MS patient

A Dutch lawyer has claimed the Irish Government is in breach of
its commitments to the Schengen Agreement by not allowing a
multiple sclerosis patient into the country in possession of
cannabis he requires for medicinal purposes. Noel McCullagh is
involved in a legal battle to allow him to return to Ireland from
the Netherlands in possession of his prescribed cannabis. Mr
McCullagh said he has been unable to see his parents for two
years because he would be arrested if found in possession of the
drug by Irish officials.

His lawyer, Jasper Pauw, said that under Schengen, an
agreement designed to abolish physical borders between
European countries, Mr McCullagh should be allowed to bring
the cannabis into Ireland. He said that Ireland signed Article 75
of the Schengen Agreement. "This says when people use a
medicine in a certain Schengen country and the medicine is legal
in that country, people can travel freely inside the Schengen zone
and bring that medicine as long as they have a certificate," he
said. A spokeswoman of the Irish Department of Health said,
"Any person entering the country with medicinal cannabis could
be charged under the Misuse of Drugs Act with unauthorised
possession." The case is currently undergoing an evaluation by
the Department of Justice.

More at: Irish Times

A (legal) crack in the wall appears!!!

haha the fucking govenment hey

cant even medicate yourself with out them wanting to make money off your illness with there nasty pills and shit

how can something that is natrall on the eath be illegal anyway thats like saying apples and pears and illegal I hope oneday in the future this ill all be behind us and we moving foward

This could be an option for those able to live in another european country for a few years. If cannabis is made legal for medicinal use in any one of those countries then it would allow a British citizen to return to the UK and use cannabis for medicinal purposes legally in this country. It may even force the government to supply that person with cannabis.

On a side note, djdavid your english is terrible. Are you stoned or something? or Irish perhaps?

sorry, that really made me laugh!

Póg mo thóin!

If you check out the link, you'd find this: "As freedom of movement is one of the main objectives of the European Union, the Treaty of Amsterdam agreed to incorporate Schengen into EU law.

But the UK and Ireland remained outside the agreement due to fears of terrorism. "

As for the quip about being Irish and any subsequent inability to speak or write English properly, I refer you, Soto, to the works of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney, inter alia. This being the internet, folk have a tendency to just type, but DJDavid's message was quite clear, as I think Dutchie's is too.

As a side note soto your bigotry is obvious, are you stoned or something? or an instutionalised racist perhaps?.

Humour is a language in itself, have you learned it yet? ;-)

Soz I'm in an odd mood.

Aye soto, the fact you find it humorous does not remove the fact it was a racist stereotype implying the poster
was stupid, in fact it serves to highlight how institutionalised that type of behaviour is that it can be dismissed as mere
"humour" and how the racism is so ingrained to be thought inconsequential.

I must be a dour and humourless then!, is it cos I is Scottish!!.

Now Now hughie,

u dont wanna start using big words on em, theyll likely hit u on the back of the head or offer u some 'friendship' blankets.

ef.

u dour n humourless scotsman....

Ahm ready fur them ah tell ye!


Click to view attachment

there was something similar a few years ago regarding an irish teenage girl (15 i think) who was raped and wasnt allowed to travel to england for an abortion. After court action she was allowed to leave the country

oss is ainm dom, even Des Bishop can speak our native

Hi.
I think that the article originally posted intended to spark up some kind of discussion on the subject.
From what I see the first couple of posters stuck on those lines, and after that, the discussion became muddled after somebody decided to show off their literary finesse on this thread (which isn't really worth further comment).

I would like to ask the poster to remove the link to the BBC item on the Schengen Convention: it does not apply here nor does it the bolded statement made later and included above (that mentions this BBC link as its basis) bear any relation to the case at hand.

The IACM permit the reproduction of their articles open source so long as they are quoted as the source.

That has been done for this post; however, the post above is not was printed in the IACM bulletin.
In that article, there is no misleading disinformation to that particular BBC news item covering the Schengen Convention.

Personally, I would love to hear what the readers of this item think about the legal issue. I cannot remember the names of the first few posters, but I would really like to hear back from you in relation to this.

From the UK side of things, as I stated on various live interviews here and on the phone to the Irish Republic, there was no issue with travelling to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. As truth would have it, when I first wanted to return to my sisters wedding in 2007 I had planned to go via land Hoek van Holland-Harwich-London-Holyhead-Dublin-home. The information I received from the UK Home Office was that controlled substances were permitted into the country for 28 days, plus the two days in transit. This is, indeed, the Schengen 30-day rule for transport (read: free movement of EU citizens within the Union). As you are aware, the UK signed up to some of the provisions of the Schengen Convention in 2001. The Irish, in many ways, were forced to apply to the same measures asap: in order to keep the CTA in place (Common Travel Area between the UK and Ire etc.).
So this of course leads to the strange situation whereby I can travel to see relations in Ireland, but I cannot enter “Les Dous ponts” Republicas des Irlandais. I had hoped to hear something from the Irish government before the girls and boys of the irish parliament are allowed home for the summer recess: and so haven’t heard anything from the Irish Central Party Commissionariate who is (supposedly) in charge of searching for some kind of humane resolution…. But that’s Ireland!

[And thankfully, I don’t live there!]


FYI


pdf attached (sucessfully I hope!)

By the way I would keep typing and updating you on the latest developments, but you'll have to give a show of hands here on whether you want to continue slaging off one another or stick to the subject.

In either case I would appreciate if someone would repost the article so that others in future don't have to wade through the initial dissappointing posts made to this one.

Thanks for reading. The law was recently altered in the UK&NI relating to the specific situation of EU citizens (or others entering the UK legally (ie visa)). I had planned to write about that here, but having read the posts submitted here I have ot admit that I feel a little nausea approaching.

so thanks for that 420 UK posters to this thread.

Noel

It's not just Ireland that is in Breach ... UK also!

But one would never expect Holland to be in Breach would one!?

Yet, they are!

Ab Klink, Dutch minister of health, has denied me permission to import Sativex into Holland (Illegal under EU Treaty), so that I may have it on prescription, so that I can cross international borders, and go see my children in the UK, without the hassle, and possibly years of waiting, to get a Dutch License to carry natural cannabis across international borders as my medicine. I've been told I need a Dutch Passport to get the License ... so ... that's something like a 7 year wait! Will I live that long is the question ... considering I have 4 Drs here saying I should have dies on, or around, 23 of May 2005 (inc. a prof. of Neurology who says it's "Impossible for you to be alive! The pain alone should have killed you!", on looking at my scans).

Hi, I read your post but I don't think I understand what you describe happened to you.

You asked the Dutch minister of health for a licence to bring "Sativex" from the UK into the Netherlands?
|Is that it?
As a patient, where are you living ? In the UK or in the Netherlands?

What do you mean when you say: "to get a Dutch License to carry natural cannabis across international borders as my medicine".

I do not think such a document exists.

Also: I've been told I need a Dutch Passport to get the License ... so ... that's something like a 7 year wait

Who told you that? If you are talking about the Schengen MEdical Certificate, then this can only be given to you by the public health service in your registered address. [EG from the NHS in the UK and from the IGZ when you live in Netherlands].

SO, if you living in the United Kingdom; and you ask for a Schengen Certificate, then this can only be applied to medicines BOUGHT in the UK.

If you were to attempt to get a Schengen Certificate for a medicine that is on sale in the Netherlands, then you would HAVE to be legally resident in the Netherlands. I can imagine a Dutch official telling you that you need to be a Dutch "resident", and still being correct.
But I cannot imagine an official telling you that you need a Dutch "passport".

Well, all I can say is that the Home Office were easy to deal with.

Actually, the Home Office (UK) altered the law on prescription medication when travelling to the UK.

They 'used to' apply the 30-day rule (the EU's schengen medical declaration law) when you had the Schengen Medical Certificate ; until this year in March-April.

Since then (April 2008), when foreigners have evidence of the prescription from the Doctor, and the prescription paperwork etc from the pharmacy where they bought their medicines , then those foreigners visiting the UK can stay there for up to 3 months and carry enough of the prescription medication with them for that length of time.