A County Tyrone man who has a terminal brain tumour says he wants to be allowed to use cannabis oil that he believes will prolong his life.

Kieran McCrory, 37, from Omagh, has asked the health minister for help in highlighting his case.

It is illegal in the UK to use cannabis for medicinal purposes as it is a class B drug.

But a derivative from the drug is used in a spray for MS patients.

Last year, Mr McCrory had just married and was preparing to start a new life in Australia.

In October, without warning, he suffered a number of seizures. He was later diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Prolong

Kieran has been told that he now has between three and five years left to live.

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The cannabis factory at Larch Road was found by local officers and detectives from Reactive and Organised Crime Branch on Saturday.

Detective Chief Inspector, Colin Gillis, said: “Officers acting upon information received, attended the house in Dungiven shortly after midday on Saturday afternoon, to discover a sizeable number of cannabis plants being cultivated at the property.

“At this stage I would estimate the street value of the cannabis plants recovered at around £250,000.

“No arrests have been made at this stage, however, officers remain at the scene carrying out a detailed forensic analysis of the premises.”

A huge cannabis haul with an estimated street value of almost £4 million was found among a lorry-load of pizza cheese understood to be destined for Northern Ireland.

The lorry was stopped by Border Force officers at the inward freight controls at Dover’s Eastern Docks.

Approximately 380kgs of cannabis were seized, worth around £3.8 million.

The drugs were found in the early hours of Tuesday in a British-registered lorry and its load of pizza cheese.

The investigation was passed to the National Crime Agency and a 46-year-old man from Ballymoney was detained and then bailed while enquiries continue.

This week a delegation from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality travelled to Portugal to learn about its drugs policy, and to assess the impact of the changes that were implemented over a decade ago.

The delegation also visited the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) which this week launched its 2015 report

The following politicians makeup the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality:

A student, found with cannabis plants and a weighing scales, claimed he was part of “a hobbyist cannabis culture” following a connoisseur’s blogs.

Daniel Flynn, of 21 Dromnevane, Kenmare, a visual communications and graphic design student who hopes to work in advertising, is claiming he was indulging in “a hobby” in which he measured his own intake of the herb and was following a weekly blog on the internet, for about a year.

Mr Flynn appeared before Kenmare District Court, charged with unlawful possession, cultivation and with sale or supply of cannabis; including two lumps of cannabis resin, found in a kitchen drawer, valued at €120, two bags of cannabis herb, valued at €800 on December 13, 2013.

New bill proposes banning all psychoactive substances then expressly permitting use of government-approved drugs

A new blanket ban on legal highs is to be so widely drawn that its provisions could be used to outlaw alcohol, tobacco, coffee and many other widely-used items, ministers have acknowledged.

The Home Office said that one of the main elements of the psychoactive substances bill would be a ban on the trade in “any substance intended for human consumption that is capable of producing a psychoactive effect”, with a maximum seven-year prison sentence to back up the ban.

But it quickly added that “substances such as alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, food and medicinal products would be excluded from the scope of the offence”.

Our drug laws are based on denial, and they have failed, says Brendan O'Connor. If we want to protect our kids we should focus on harm-reduction

The war on drugs is being lost, one incarcerated or dead young person at a time. Ana Hick was the latest victim, last Sunday. Ana's 19th birthday was a funeral. She was dead because she did what millions of kids before her did, and what millions more will do. She played Russian roulette with pills she bought from a criminal on the street. And she died because our drugs laws do not protect our children, or take into account human nature.

Around three weeks ago the news broke that Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, who is a Labour TD for Dublin North-Central, had been appointed the new Minister for Drugs Strategy

The role of Minister for Drugs Strategy had been vacant for 10 months following the July 2014 cabinet reshuffle. It appeared that Minister for Health Leo Varadkar was set to oversee drug policy however the government has decided to give the position to Ó Ríordáin.

New research from a pair of neurologists at the University of Dublin claims cannabis could be the key to fighting disorders of the aging brain.

As the brain gets older, it becomes more susceptible to degenerative disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Although different areas of the brain are affected, what underlies both conditions is the progressive death of brain cells.