Cork woman fears arrest if she brings her medicinal cannabis home from UK 

Caroline Barry was prescribed medical marijuana for her symptoms of ADHD.

A Cork woman living in the UK says she feels barred from coming home because she may be arrested if she brings her medical cannabis with her.

Caroline Barry is one of the first people to be prescribed cannabis for her ADHD in the UK.

But she is not the first person who has had to choose between returning to family and friends in Ireland without their medication or remain abroad so that they can continue to access it there.

Ms Barry said her ADHD symptoms were becoming unmanageable during the pandemic, leaving her desperate for help and close to a mental health breakdown. Medical cannabis has helped her relax and quieten her racing mind.

Caroline Barry is afraid to return to Ireland.

Originally from outside Clonakilty, West Cork, Ms Barry moved to Nottingham to study a PhD. She then moved into journalism and makeup artistry and now specialises in cannabis and CBD journalism.

Diagnosed at the age of 10 with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), she said that the condition has hugely impacted her life.

“It was hugely difficult to manage. I was very full-on at school, I had a lot of energy. I could be quite inattentive to school work and make silly mistakes because of it.

"My concentration was all over the place. I was either 100% focused or had no focus at all. 

"And I had little concept of risk. It has affected uni, jobs, made relationships difficult.” 

She said that stigma taught her to hide her condition until very recently.

“ADHD was always presented as a problem when I was a child, nothing positive was ever said about it, so I got a bit defensive about it. 

"I thought, ‘well if this is such a problem I’m not going to tell anyone about it'. So you try to mould yourself into this neurotypical world which just left me even more exhausted. A lot of people with ADHD are afraid to speak out.” 

Isolation

Isolation over successive lockdowns made her condition worse.

“A lot of people with ADHD put mechanisms in place to help them cope. I have lower levels of dopamine than other people, so I’d schedule new or exciting things to do, like seeing people, going for a walk or coffee or the cinema — to give me little dopamine top-ups. But when all that was gone I found it very difficult to get those little dopamine hits.

“I started to become hyper-focused with work. I’d forget to eat and because I was at home I couldn’t just walk away from the office at 5pm. My work/life balance became very unhealthy. I also have an anxiety disorder and that became more difficult to manage too. By Christmas I was mentally very unwell."

I was overwhelmed, exhausted, unable to cope with how things were.

She went to her GP who referred her to a clinic specialising in neurodiversity.

“I was in tears, begging for help. I just couldn’t cope. I really needed help. But I just fell through the cracks in the NHS.” 

She said she found a clinic in the UK that could prescribe medicinal cannabis for ADHD and got her first prescription in July.

She said that the medication has already helped her hugely and widespread change in the way cannabis is viewed in Ireland is desperately needed.

Risk of arrest

“Now that I have a cannabis prescription, the laws in Ireland mean I cannot travel with my medication or I risk having it taken off me, or possibly arrested.

"I cannot return home to live because I would lose my legal status and then have to break the law to get my medication. I'm not the only person in this situation but one of the only ones who have a prescription for ADHD, not chronic pain or epilepsy.

“MCAP [Medical Cannabis Access Programme] is not even operational yet in Ireland. Irish patients are leaving the country to access safe cannabis in countries like Spain. They shouldn’t have to.

Cost is another problem.

Ms Barry is calling for full decriminalisation of the substance to allow patients like her return home safely.

In Ireland, cannabis is a controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Acts, 1977 to 2015.

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If a product contains any amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), regardless of the concentration and unless otherwise authorised, it is illegal to import, export, possess or supply it without the appropriate documentation issued by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) on behalf of the Department of Health.

Goods or products imported or brought into Ireland that contain THC which do not have the appropriate documentation issued by the HPRA are liable to seizure under Sec 34(1) of the Customs Act 2015, the Revenue Commissioners have confirmed.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health confirmed possession of cannabis is unlawful except under licence. 

“Under the legislation cannabis-based products containing THC are not permitted to be imported into Ireland, unless the product has been prescribed on an individual patient basis by an Irish registered medical practitioner and subject to a Ministerial licence being granted to that prescriber or under licence for a product in Schedule 1 of S.I. No. 262/2019 — Misuse Of Drugs (Prescription And Control Of Supply Of Cannabis For Medical Use) Regulations 2019.”