PRO-cannabis supporters lit up in an Irish remembrance garden for freedom fighters yesterday, in an effort to lobby the Government to legalise the herb for medical use.
'Cloud in the Garden' was organised by the Dublin Cannabis Club in the Garden of Remembrance to help break the "stereotypical" image of cannabis users.
The event was organised as part of 420 day, a universal event synonymous with pro-cannabis smokers across the world.
Rallies were also held in London, Israel and across the United States.
The Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square is dedicated to the memory of Irish freedom fighters from the 1700s up to the 1921 Irish Republican Army.
It's also where the Irish Volunteers were founded in 1913, and where several leaders of the 1916 Rising were held overnight before being taken to Kilmainham Gaol.
President Éamon de Valera opened the Garden in 1966 on the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising.
Protesters at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin. (Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie)A spokesperson for the Dublin Cannabis Club told The Irish Post that they organised yesterday's rally to "end the shame" around smoking cannabis.
Around 100 poeple attended the protest after 2,500 had initially registered their support for the rally on Facebook.
"We called the rally to 'End The Shame' around cannabis, and open civil disobedience seems to be the only way forward.
"It is also a natural plant and laws to criminalise its use are a crime against nature and humanity.
Protestors want the right to choose cannabis over other medical drugs for treatment. (Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie)"We want the right to choose cannabis over other medication that are harmful and we want people to be free to enjoy a safe alternative to alcohol in a social setting.
"We believe this is a freedom of choice movement," they added.
However, the Dublin Cannabis Club does not expect the 'battle' for medicinal cannabis to be won anytime soon.
Vera Twomey"Sadly it will be a long time before the cannabis battle is won, even if we have some legislation. We want the right and choice to grow our own medicine, and only when that happens will cannabis be legal."
This is not the first time the legalisation of cannabis and its products for medicinal use have hit the healdines in Ireland.
Parents of children suffering with severe illnesses are also lobbying for the legal use of cannabis oil as a medication.
Earlier this year, Irish mother Vera Twomey walked 161 miles from Cork to the Dáil in Dublin to highlight the need for cannabis oil to treat her daughter's drug resistant epilepsy.
Her six-year-old daughter Ava has Dravet Syndrome, a rare drug-resistant form of epilepsy.
It means she has hundreds of seizures daily and frequently spends long periods in hospital.
Ms Twomey said children in the US with similar conditions to Ava "having up to three hundred seizures a day were reduced to two a month after beginning CBD oil, reductions of 60 to 80 per cent, even in some cases eliminating seizures completely.”
Minister for Health Simon Harris said while his Department are "progressing" the access medical marijuana.
"Patients accessing cannabis through this programme will need to be recommend for it by their medical consultant," he has previously said.
