Chairman: [Deputy C. Keaveney] We are meeting to discuss the two important reports we launched in July, The Inclusion Of Alcohol In A National Substance Misuse Strategy, and What Everyone Should Know About Cannabis. I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Noel Ahern, and his officials, who are present to respond to the reports and indicate what we are doing right and the direction our strategy should take.

The recommendations have been circulated to the members. One recommendation in What Everyone Should Know About Cannabis was that a national strategy should be drawn up with the aim of reversing the exponential rise in cannabis use over the past decade, especially among women of child-bearing age and their offspring, bearing in mind that young people in general are vulnerable to mental health problems and psychotic illnesses. The second recommendation was that there should be further neurobiological and clinical research to examine the long-term cognitive impairments associated with heavy cannabis use, particularly those impairments related to heavy use in adolescence and to prenatal exposure.

[For the full debate click on this link to the Oireachtas website]