YES
Sending people through the criminal justice system for simple possession is a complete waste of resources for the State and the individual, says Gino Kenny, TD
Earlier this week, the Irish College of Psychiatrists issued a stark warning that “cannabis represents the gravest threat to the mental health of young people today”.
The college further noted that there were suggestions that the drug was considered “harmless” and that the number of hospital admissions of young people with a cannabis-related diagnosis increased by 300% between 2005 and 2017.
There is no doubt that the potency levels of cannabis are different from what they were 10 years ago.
17:02 EDT, 8 May 2021
I am still seething about the official attitude towards the deranged Jonty Bravery, who – after a long career of crazed violence well known to officialdom – hurled a child from the top of the Tate Modern.
The public were left entirely unprotected from this person. It could have been you whose life he wrecked without a second’s warning.
None of us would know if someone similar to him was at large now in our own home towns, though officials would.
The crime makes no possible sense. Nor did Bravery’s many previous recorded actions, bloody, cruel and pointless.
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Since that time, Judge Paul Kelly of Dublin Childrenâs Court noted the boy, who has been under supervision, was working well with the probation service, according to
Breaking News.
Still, Judge Kelly said he had concerns about the teenâs ongoing cannabis use â he was still consuming about â¬100 ($147) worth of weed each week â and its potential impact on his mental health. He was also not ready to accept the Probation Serviceâs suggestion that supervision was no longer required.
Nothing scientific, but a commenter to Mary Janeâs Diary in 2017 noted that in Ireland, people were paying about â¬25 ($37) per gram of cannabis; a 2015 GrassCity message board comment reported a gram could be had for about â¬10 ($15) or enough for two to three mid-size joints; and a 2018 Reddit post suggested a person should be able to get 3.2 to 3.5 grams for â¬50 ($74).
Updated / Thursday, 6 May 2021
14:53
Urgent changes to support services for young people are needed to avert a mental health disaster
Young people are under enormous strain because of the pandemic, an Oireachtas committee has heard, and urgent changes to support services are needed to avert a surefire recipe for a mental health disaster .
Ian Power, CEO of SpunOut.ie, Ireland s youth information website, told the sub-committee on mental health that one in five of young people using a free texting service last year had considered taking their own lives.
The National Ambulance Service was mobilised in over 400 cases, because young people were in real and active and imminent danger , he said.
Ambulances sent to 400 young people in real danger who used mental health text service irishtimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from irishtimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.