Padilla files Senate bill seeking legalization of medical marijuana

Senator Robinhood "Robin" Padilla on Friday pushed for the legalization of medical marijuana as a “compassionate alternative means of medical treatment.”

Padilla filed Senate Bill No. 230 which also seeks the expansion of research into the medicinal properties of marijuana or cannabis which he cited as a popular medicine in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

He said that it has been widely used as herbal medicine to treat conditions of “gout, rheumatism, malaria, and poor memory.”

Under the bill, medical cannabis, which refers to products such as capsules and oil, and not raw cannabis, may be used on a “qualified patient who has been diagnosed by a certifying physician as having a debilitating medical condition.”

It also defines “debilitating medical condition” to include cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, damage to the nervous system of the spinal cord, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, rheumatoid arthritis or similar chronic autoimmune deficiency, diseases requiring hospice care, severe nausea, sleep disorders, mood disorders, recurring migraine headaches, and other debilitating medical conditions identified by the Department of Health through the Medical Cannabis Advisory Committee.

Meanwhile, the DOH was designated as the principal regulatory agency that shall establish Medical Cannabis Compassionate Centers (MCCCs) in public tertiary hospitals.

The Health Department will also set up a prescription monitoring system and an electronic database of registered medical cannabis patients and their physicians.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on the other hand, will test medical cannabis products, while the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) will monitor and regulate medical cannabis.

The senator underscored that the state would intervene to assure that only “proper and needed doses” would be consumed,  and in a form that was  manufactured in an environment approved by the DDB.

"The State should, by way of exception, allow the use of cannabis for compassionate purposes to promote the health and well-being of citizens proven to be in dire need of such while at the same time providing the strictest regulations to ensure that abuses for casual use or profiteering be avoided," Padilla said in his bill.

Last January 2019, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading the measure legalizing and regulating the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. — DVM, GMA News