Business of Cannabis
The Irish government has appointed a public health academic to chair a formal review of its now five-year-old Medical Cannabis Access Programme (MCAP) following months of parliamentary pressure.
Despite launching in 2021, a recent (March 18, 2026) written ministerial answer reveals that less than 100 patients have been approved for medical cannabis treatment under the MCAP scheme.
Now, Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has announced that Professor Shane Allwright, a retired Trinity College Dublin epidemiologist, will lead the Review of Access to Cannabis for Medical Use, set to examine the current operation of both the MCAP and the ministerial licence pathway, and assess whether the programme’s narrow eligibility criteria should be expanded.
This review has been in the works since January 2024, when the HRB published the evidence assessment commissioned to inform it.
According to MacNeill, the review is now expected to commence officially in Q2 2025 and publish its full report within 12 months.
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