AFTER much hemming and hawing, the bill that allows select patients access to medicinal cannabis has been approved by the House of Representatives on the third and final reading. A total of 177 House members recently voted in favor of House Bill No. 10439 or the proposed Access to Medical Cannabis Act, with nine lawmakers voting in the negative and nine abstentions.
The bill defines a qualified patient as a person who has been diagnosed by an accredited physician as having a medical condition or has symptoms associated with a medical condition who, in the accredited physician’s evaluation, will receive medical cannabis as treatment.
If enacted, a Medical Cannabis Office (MCO) under the Department of Health will be created, which will be the primary regulatory body for medical cannabis, having administrative, regulatory, and monitoring functions.
The office will be responsible for ensuring that medical marijuana will not be abused and will be used solely for health purposes.
‘It might take a few more years before the Philippines joins other countries which are scientifically prepared and culturally capable, with the required level of security and law enforcement, to accept and regulate medicinal cannabis.’
“The MCO shall ensure that medical cannabis shall only be accessed through hospitals, clinics, drugstores, and other medical facilities authorized and licensed by the MCO for the use of qualified patients. It shall also ensure that only accredited physicians shall prescribe medical cannabis to qualified patients with enough supply of the medicine to last not more than one (1) year,” the bill states.
“The MCO shall establish a monitoring system that includes information such as name, address of the qualified patient and the physician, diagnosis, medical cannabis product and formulation, and date of dispensation in strict observance of RA 10173, otherwise known as the ‘Data Privacy Act of 2012’,” it added.
The bill, however, prohibits the cultivation, manufacture, storage and distribution of medical cannabis, its products, or derivative without permit from the MCO, along with the selling of, or trading with, medical cannabis to patients, doctors, drugstores, hospitals, clinics, dispensaries and other medical facilities without authority, license or accreditation from the MCO.
Also prohibited are the planting and growing of cannabis for research and development without authority from the MCO, prescription and administration of medical cannabis by non-accredited physicians, and by accredited doctors for more than one year. The use of medical cannabis without prescription or use beyond the prescribed dosage is also prohibited.
Medicinal cannabis, or particularly cannabidiol (CBD) oil which is derived from the marijuana plant, is believed to alleviate pain and seizures in some patients battling epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and other neurological conditions. However, a law allowing normal use of CBD oil is needed as the plant is currently labeled as a banned substance.
Due to the controversial nature of the uses of CBD oil, the bill to legalize marijuana oil has encountered long delays in the legislature. Last February, the House committee on dangerous drugs and the committee on health approved a substitute measure, which was the product of technical working group meetings and amendments during the hearing itself.
There were 10 House bills consolidated by the TWG, but the proposal was not brought to the plenary before session adjourned in March 22 for the Holy Week. It was approved on second reading in May, before the second regular session of the 19th Congress adjourned.
After the House, there is still the Senate where a counterpart bill was sponsored in plenary last March. But with the new Senate leadership, particularly the presence there of Sen. Francis Tolentino as majority leader, the fate of medicinal cannabis remains uncertain.
It might take a few more years before the Philippines joins other countries which are scientifically prepared and culturally capable, with the required level of security and law enforcement, to accept and regulate medicinal cannabis.
