The Story of Ireland’s First Licensed Medical Cannabis Patient

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]I[/dropcap]n honor of St. Patrick’s Day, today is about honoring not only the cultural heritage that Ireland provides to so many people, but also identifying how cannabis has grown in popularity there. Medical cannabis is currently allowed in the country, but only when it’s approved for specific individuals. One of those individuals is Tristan Forde from Cork, Ireland.

Tristan was diagnosed with Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy, in 2014. In order to help treat Tristan’s condition, he, his brother Oscar and his mother Yvonne Cahalane moved to Colorado in 2015 to allow him to have access to medical cannabis. Yvonne’s husband John stayed in Ireland due to work restrictions. Tristan’s medication included CBD oil as well as THCA.

After a year spent in the U.S., Tristan was almost completely seizure-free, and Yvonne and Tristan were able to make it back to their home country just in time for Christmas.

Yvonne soon sent a medical cannabis license application to the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, and the application was approved in a matter of days. “He is the first wee man in Irish history to be legally allowed access medicinal marijuana in Ireland,” Cahalane said. “We are thrilled. We got a call yesterday and confirmation yesterday that his application is approved.”

Her happiness at hearing the news was hard to miss, especially considering the sacrifices that the family had to make in order to get Tristan feeling better. “It has been frustrating,” she continued. “None of this has been rosy or plain sailing. It has taken years. Mainly because there was no such thing as an application process before we left, so they had to design an application process, which took the majority of the waiting time.”