Thread by @HempFedIreland

"The failure of Irish Environmental NGO's to understand this issue and act in defence of the Irish environment is monumental"

@IrishEnvNet
@Env_Pillar

Pharmaceutical Cannabis and Tobacco interests lead the corporate cannabis lobby in 🇮🇪

They have enjoyed extraordinary levels of access to discuss the future of the Irish AGRICULTURAL hemp sector at the VERY highest offices of State administration🧵

@Env_Pillar @IrishEnvNet

Irish hemp farmers & industry operators have been totally excluded from these discussions

@Env_Pillar @IrishEnvNet

In 2020, the State successfully transferred the entire agricultural hemp value chain from the hands of Irish farmers and operators into the hands of corporate cannabis interests

@Env_Pillar @IrishEnvNet

The Minister for Agriculture then removed 80% of established farm incomes from the sector in advance of the roll out of the LULUCF Sustainable Carbon Cycles framework.

Not one word @Env_Pillar @IrishEnvNet ??

A few weeks AFTER the EU Court of Justice ruled that no such intervention was possible under the national drugs laws of Member States, Ireland's Minister for Health defined hemp as a dangerous drug for the purposes of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977

@Env_Pillar @IrishEnvNetwork

The EU Commission does not regulate agricultural crops and consumer goods where they are narcotic drugs!

The UN Commodities and Trade division predicts a four fold increase in global markets for hemp products of every kind over the next four years.

@Env_Pillar @IrishEnvNet

Since hemp was first reintroduced to Europe by the Commission in 1970, it has been grown consistently in about 10 EU Member States.

Ireland is one of those Member States.

@Env_Pillar @IrishEnvNet

The ECJ determined that Europe's farmers have a legal right to continue to use all parts of the hemp crop to earn their livings.

@Env_Pillar @IrishEnvNet

A criminal offence now stands between Irish hemp farmers and their right to continue to pursue their livelihoods as they have done for decades.

@Env_Pillar @IrishEnvNet

The Irish market for hemp products remains fully open for business.

Products which were previously grown on Irish farms are now grown on farms in other EU Member States and imported into Ireland.

@Env_Pillar @IrishEnvNet

Ministers for Health can't simply decide that EU crops and goods are dangerous drugs.

The law demands science!

Minister Donnelly is unable to produce any scientific evidence whatsoever to show that hemp and derived goods pose a risk to human health.

@Env_Pillar @IrishEnvNet

Irish farmers and industry operators are now advised to expect terms of up to LIFE imprisonment if they try to continue to make these products themselves.

No legislation creating a criminal offence of traditional farming practices was ever put before the Houses of the Oireachtas

To be clear, a criminal offence which didn't previously exist in Irish Statutes now exists on the sole apparent authority of the Minister for Health.

How can that be @davidcullinane ?

Last year, DAFM advised the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee as follows:

“Legislation on cannabis, which includes hemp, is not a matter for this Department and it would not be appropriate for us to discuss any issues on the legal aspects that govern hemp" ...

..nevertheless. the Minister for Agriculture is in fact legally responsible for agricultural crops and sectors in Ireland & DAFM continues to present itself at EU LEVEL as the relevant authority for agricultural hemp related matters - including the "issues on the legal aspects"

Ireland's Minister for Health has NO authority whatsoever to limit the free movement of EU regulated crops on the Single Market!
&
In the absence of science he has NO authority to limit, by licence or otherwise, the manufacture, transport, retail etc of hemp & hemp goods in 🇮🇪

Did Ireland's Minister for Health seek the prior consent of the Minister for Agriculture before he defined an EU regulated agricultural crop as a drug in Irish law ?

Can the Minister for Agriculture provide the scientific evidence required by law to justify the intervention?

Did the Cabinet approve Minister Donnelly's intervention despite the Court of Justice ruling just a few weeks before?

Was the Cabinet provided with the required scientific evidence to justify the intervention?

What we do know is:

Irish farmers face life imprisonment for making hemp goods they were previously rewarded by the State for making

@DonnellyStephen did not place the legislation before the Houses of the Irish Oireachtas.

Only the Oireachtas can create a criminal offence.

Recently, definitive rulings of both the French Supreme Court (2022) and the Italian Supreme Court (2023) have confirmed that the placing of ANY restriction whatsoever on their hemp farmers and operators is unlawful.

Where French and Italian farmers and industry operators could come together to fund a joint defence of their rights as EU citizens, no such mechanisms (Class Action or Third Party Funded Litigation) is possible in the Irish justice system.

Irish hemp farmers and operators, unlike their EU Counterparts, are vulnerable and disproportionately so, because they can be isolated and herded one by one into the High Court, where only those who can afford to fund individual actions will have any access to justice ...

Nevertheless, Irish hemp farmers and industry operators are fully entitled to expect their rights and entitlements as EU citizens will be upheld through the correct interpretation and application of EU laws by authorities in Ireland

Here we have a Minister for Agriculture, supporting a Minister for Health, to place Irish hemp farmers and operators in prison for life, for producing, making and trading an EU regulated crop and consumer goods which are widely available in shops across Ireland and Europe.

There is no need in Ireland for every contravention of the human rights of Irish citizens to be dealt with after the fact as a legacy issue. Surely the above outlined issue is serous enough for public representatives, civil society groups and the media to clarify in real time?