And annoyingly for me, I have seen about 30 articles in the last month about this, all with ever so slight changes in the title to make it seem a step further.

All that is on the bill to my knowledge is decriminalisation of up to 7g of cannabis.

And its not the first time Gino Kelly has proposed a bill as such as this. Last time notably leaving out some pretty important details.

I hope it passes, but it won't. Even if it did, we are still easily 10 years plus out from legalisation.

EDIT: Seen it is also proposing a Citizens assembly for next year and injection centers. Two other positive moves, however I'm doubtful it will pass anyway.

Hang in there, this is how it starts! I live in one of, if not the most conservative parts of our country, (Canada) and I felt I would never see it in my lifetime.

Can’t drive through any town without passing at least 3 dispensaries these days. Literally more of them than liquor stores!

It can and probably will happen!

Minister for Higher Education: Simon Harris said on yesterday’s ’This week in Politics’, that they intend to establish the Citizens Assembly next year.

Yeah, they'll get on it fight after they get those last few tweaks to this minor housing blip sorted out.

It's such a pain in the hole too, having lived in Canada where its been legal for years and magically society hasn't deteriorated into a drug zombie hellscape.

Yes and no.

Technically we don't. We have a Minister of State with responsibility for Public Health, Well Being and National Drugs Strategy.

Commonly referred to as a 'junior minister'. They exist dur to a constitutional limit on how many ministers we can have. The idea is they can focus on specific areas under the wider ministry, health in this case.

Some have been quite good IMO, law reform had been busy. Drugs however, not so much.

$296.3 million USD per year. Just on sales.

That's extrapolating what my state's (Oregon) yearly marijuana tax revenue is and adjusting for Ireland's bigger population.

That number jumps up even more when you get into things like license fees, property taxes, inspection fees, etc. Not to mention the employment bump and the economic impact of legalization on tourism.

If it’s any consolation, it’s because the arts in Ireland have been dying a slow death for the past 20 years. No job opportunities or market for anyone who pursues arts and it began to show for awhile

For a country that’s so rich in Music, Literature and Poetry, it wasn’t far from its death a few years ago and it’s recently been a policy that artists will receive UBI and pay no taxes up to 50k

One of my friends studied literature and screenwriting and it was impossible for him to dedicate time to it because he couldn’t afford to live, now he actually has an opportunity to work on screenplays