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A TWO-YEAR-old boy from Cork is the first Irish person to be granted a licence for medical cannabis since new legislation came into effect.
Tristan Forde suffers from Dravet Syndrome, which causes severe seizures. His mother Yvonne Cahalane relocated to Colorado with him for a year so he could access cannabis oil, but they recently returned and now the toddler can receive the treatment he needs in his home country.
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“He’s never had to be hospitalised, not once, since he started cannabis,” Yvonne told C103 earlier today. The family got the call yesterday to confirm Tristan’s licence had been approved.
“We’re thrilled he can continue his treatment in Ireland,” his mother said.
None of this is rosy, none of it has been plain sailing. You get two steps ahead and you get a step back.
“His oil is being made for him in Europe so we get to go collect that and safely know that we can bring that home and use it with his doctor’s supervision.”
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@bmul: it’s better for your health, better for the environment, better for your wallet, better for the other animals you share this planet with. There is widespread consensus among philosophers that factory farming is deeply immoral and many predict humanity will look back on this era akin to how we look back on slavery. Abraham Lincoln, an historical figurehead of independent free-thought kept slaves. Its very difficult to understand that the status-quo is wrong when youre amidst it.
@The Bull McCabe: Nobody minds what you eat. It seems that vegans merely talking about what they eat is a red flag to some meat eaters – is it because it is perceived as a call to conscience?
Stating that a vegan diet is necessary for the battle against catastrophic climate change is OK to say, as it is true. It’s no different from saying that a high meat, high fat diet is bad for your health. That doesn’t mean anybody is telling you what to eat – just stating facts.
Despite not being vegetarian or vegan, I completely agree with this, Bord Bia and Irish farmers should be viewing this as a new (and frankly lucrative) market. They should be future proofing their business, rather than spending money to maintain a status quo.
@PaleoIreland: exactly my point must have went over the head of the guy above. Also Irish produce supporting Irish jobs. That’s what’s actually sustainable.
@PaleoIreland: much less than a ship. Also avocado is a product of carbon dioxide absorption and reaches maturity way faster than lamb. Lamb emits carbon dioxide and methane during its life time. Avocado is the carbon footprint way to go byfar!
@Padraic Burke: And them lambs are supporting real jobs , jobs where min have to get outa bed, pull on a pair of boots and wrassel animals, shout ‘hulla, hulla hulla’, stand in gaps and discard fag buts. ..
What damn jobs does avocados support – a few wimpy lads smashing it on to sourdough toast with fennel seeds – these are not real jobs.
All the vegans in the world would never support a job that put bacon on the table.
@Paul A Whelan: no it doesn’t, it takes an avocado tree minimum 5 years to produce fruit. In the meantime it needs water and fertiliser to grow both of which consume energy and lots of without including cultivation and transportation. It’s a fallacy to think all fruit and veg production is carbon neutral.
@Padraic Burke: Can’t wait to see all the delighted faces at the Sunday dinner table when a roast avocado is presented with gravy, spud and carrots. Yummmm. Roast avocado and gravy just won’t sustain a ferocious appetite. Definitely unsustainable.
@Padraic Burke: do meat eaters abstain from eating avocados? Do vegans all eat avocados? I’m pretty sure avocado isn’t a substitute for lamb. Beans and lentils are more commonly used as a protein substitute as well as Tofu or seitan for some. We export most of our meat to other countries across the globe…it’s proven that the carbon footprint of a vegan is less than half that of a meat eater. I was quite ignorant myself to these facts until I educated myself a few years ago.
@Padraic Burke: Has it not occurred to you that the people who don’t eat meat for environmental reasons are the same people who go out of their way to buy only local produce where at all possible? D’uh!
“the countless challenges that vegetarians and vegans face on a daily basis.” that could be very easily remedied… but they would rather talk down to people and try to convince others to have to deal with these challenges too.
@Shannon Mcg: you’re right it could be easily remedied by offering veggies and vegans a bit more choice and diversity! It’s a proper pain in the behind when no matter where you go your options are limited to pasta in a tomato sauce or a veggie stir fry!
@nikki: I’m all in favour of veganism and vegetarianism, but no, no, no, I’m sorry: the limits on your options are your own doing – you made a choice to restrict your diet to particular types of foods. You cannot therefore complain that you have limited choices when eating out. That’s the logical result of restricting your diet FFS.
Thank you Eva for writing the article. I got this question too when I turned vegan. I provided the reasons: health, cruelty-free, environment friendly. My husband and I will never go back eating animal products again, but that is our choice. We don’t go around trying to convince people to change their diet and we hope people respect ours too. I genuinely believe that people are becoming more aware of the effect of meat and daily in our body and the environment though. We can even see this by the increasing of vegan products in the supermarkets and by the options in the restaurants.
@Vanessa Boschetti: Being a Vegan is not enviormentally friendly, how is it?? Do you know how much water is used to water the trees? also, to grow vegan food they use very very little perennial cropland, thus it’s wasting land that could be used for food, to feed people.
@Lisa Byrne: Meat production requires a much higher amount of water than vegetables. As average, to produce 1kg of meat requires between 5,000 and 20,000 litres of water whereas to produce 1kg of wheat requires between 500 and 4,000 litres of water. Not to mention the deforestation around the world for beef farming.
@Vanessa Boschetti: not totally environmentally friendly trees have to be cut down to make room for a more diverse range of crops thus depriving the atmosphere of co2 filters ie trees and also destroying natural habitat of countless species of animals.
@Vote4Pedro: but not as many as are being cut down for meat production or to grow the crops that go to feed cattle. And I’m not a vegetarian. There is no form of food production that is totally environmentally friendly, but meat production is the most harmful. Add to that the growing antibiotic resistance in humans, largely fuelled by the amount of residual antibiotics in the meat we eat, and meat eating is way more toxic than a vegetarian diet.
@Vanessa Boschetti: the plant based lifestyle u mentioned is as bad as a meat eater sorry to say but being a silly farmer what would I know where are all your plants grown cereals and vegetables how often are the fields planted in one year with different crops and no earth worms in those fields killed with chemical fertiliser s to make them grow chemical s used to kill of weeds and then sprayed at end of each crop for next cycle your crops are only growing because of the volume of chemical fertiliser and sprays but killed 90% of the farmers true friend the earth worm .. not including the heavy machinery used the compaction on the land where the chemical s are coming from
, the countless challenges that vegetarians and vegans face on a daily basis.
What challenges?
I don’t eat meat and can’t think of a single challenge when buying or preparing food.
The only challenge I can think of is when meat eaters expect me to start lecturing them about how ” meat is murder “….well it’s not and I could care less if someone eats meat or not.
@Mill Lane: snap, vegetarian for going on 20 years and I don’t face any daily challenges. I hazard a guess that the only people who face so called challenges are people who endeavour to seek out challenges.
@Zmeevo Libe:
Most restaurants are more than happy to make meat free versions of items on the menu where possible.
Sometimes all you need to do is ask.
@Mill Lane: my missus ordered the vegeterian burger in a Galway hotel, what she got was two big mushrooms on a burger bun with a bit of garnish. When she queried with the waitress, the reply she got was ‘What,were you expecting meat?’
Going by the authors figures there is about 700 vegans in the country. I could of sworn there was a he’ll of a lot more of them given the amount I’ve heard and number of posters up
@Adrian™: “Bord Bia estimates that 8% of the Irish population are now vegetarian, while 2% are vegan” is the quote from the original article which is linked in this article. But you are right that it is badly phrased here.
Thank Eva for writing the article. As a vegan I got asked this question too and I provided a list of reasons (health, cruelty-free, environment- friendly, as some of them). My husband and I will never go back eating animal products again and we genuinely believe this is the future, as more and more people are realising what the consequences of doing so cause to our bodies and the environment. However, I’ll never go around and try to convince people of becoming vegan. I respect people’s opinion and I hope the respect mine too.
I’m a vegetarian and think it’s harmless enough, we’re unlikely to change I guess but I don’t mind filling in a questionnaire or knowing that one exists…
I think it is impossible to be a vegan for the reason for caring about animals, it’s impossible not to be a hypocrit.
Medicine; New medicine treatments that are tested on animals that could have potential to lessen the symptoms of alzheimers, or parkinsons, if they had sucj illnesses would they refuse this medication?
And what about medicine that has already been tested on animals that are out now that help cancer patients, will they refuse the medication?
What about college? if they got accepted to trinity college and say DCU, will they choose the college that does less testing on mice? Trinity College does an awful lot of testing on mice, trinity uses thousands of animals for research purposes.
What about vegans who eat vegan food but go to restraunts that serve meat, do they protest?
What about food bought in a supermaket, do food they boycott all food manufacturers who also deal in meat and meat by products even though they make Vegan options? they don’t shop there.
what about vegans who use any sort of oil/;petroleum by products, because Oil companies are displacing many natural enviorments of aquatic creatures.
My point is, it’s hard to be a vegan on the grounds of animal cruelty without being a hypocrit.
And the bees, what about all the bees they are killing so they can drink their almond milk??? How do vegans square that hole????
@Lisa Byrne: What you’re calling hypocrisy is really the difficulty of perfectly following an ethical imperative in a broken system. Most vegans understand that they cannot completely avoid the exploitation of animals, because we live in a world where animals are simply seen as a resource to be used to whatever ends, or as an obstacle in the way of those ends.
One should never avoid trying to do what is right simply because perfection is unattainable.
@Lisa Byrne:
Its not binary. Its a scale. Start by eating meat less than 3 times a day. Then try meatless Mondays, and continue from there. Even the most extreme vegan still contributes to animal cruelty and environmental damage. The key is to not criticise, but encourage those who are lower down the scale.
@Lisa Byrne: did you forget to take your meds? You need to do some research.
The W.H.O website
Documentaries on Netflix
What the health
Conspiracy
Documentaries on YouTube
Earthlings
Land of hope and glory
Gary yorofsky
If you are ill (autoimmune, diabetes, cancer, etc) you need to quit pork (sausages to sweet gelatine) salmon (farmed or wild), microwaved popcorn and Pringles altogether as they exploit physical weakness and hinder / prevent healing. Pork is the biggest issue as pigs have an unusual way of eliminating toxins and bacteria (they do not sweat like other animals). If you are sick, take my word for it, quit all pork to the point where you gotta ask the person at the deli counter to wash the knife before making your non-pork sandwich. No chips from the chipper either unfortunately, they most likely have been fried in oil that also cooked cocktail sausages, etc… Happy healing! Pass that on to Bord Bia if you like :)
@Sara McSweeney: yes, but I’d rather you do the work! You’ll learn so much along the way. FYI the popcorn issue comes from the package internal coating leaching into the food when the microwaves hit it. Wild salmon is as toxic as farmed & has four issues; Mercury, bad cholesterol, PCPs and radiation (the latter mostly Pacific). Pringles have a bunch of chemicals that could cause cancer cells to develop overnight in immuno-compromised. Pork is the main one, we’re accustomed to the toxins and don’t notice them as long as we’re healthy and detoxing effectively….
@Sara McSweeney: Proving the pork one is easy if you have a damaged immune system. Quit all food from the piggy for six months, go find a cafe beside a hospital and order a big fry! Anyway I hope these posts help someone to heal…
Thank you Eva for writing the article. I got this question too when I turned vegan. I provided the reasons: health, cruelty-free, environment friendly…I could go on. My husband and I will never go back eating animal products again, but that is our choice. We don’t go around trying to convince people to change their diet and we hope people respect ours too. I genuinely believe that people are becoming more aware of the effect of meat and daily in our body and the environment though. We can even see this by the increasing of vegan products in the supermarkets and by the options in the restaurants. I’m delighted with that ;-)
@Vanessa Boschetti: I guess you never worked or lived on a real farm . As u have no idea the damage growing crops does to land and every insect and earthworm thats killed for those crops ..
You know alot of vaccines such as polio was researched and developed by using animal testing, I suppose vegans would be opposed to vaccinations on the basis they are cruel to animals. Children are also immunised against typhus, diphtheria, whooping cough, smallpox, and tetanus. Untold millions of people around the world are healthy adults because of these vaccines, which were made possible through animal research. But vegans of course would never ever dare to vaccinate their kids because of the inhumane cruetly to the animals that were used in the developing
I hate when vegans/vegetarians make a big deal out of their food. What they will and will not eat. i dont eat meat , my family do, i cook for them all the time i just eat the vegetables/salad whatever i dont make a scene about it. i have never ordered a special meal at an event or flying. Just eat or order the vegetables or salad or both. Stop making a fuss … nobody cares just get on with it
Veganism/vegetarianism are very unhealthy diets inasmuch they are very low in the fat soluble vitamins A, D, And many B vitamins and calcium. What we need is ethical omnivorism based on pollo-pescetarianism. This is what the data tells us is the most sustainable and nutritious diet which is much better for the environment
Decent article and while I’ll eat pretty much anything (flesh or foliage); I get annoyed myself when I hear that question being ask: “why you dont each meat”?
The same though for the militant vegans and vegetarians who harass; which happened to me at a wedding a few weeks back (a most vegetarian-spread but they DID have beef for those who wanted it). I was the only one at my table to order this but the comments; looks and snide remarks wouldnt stop all day.
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