House passes medical marijuana bill on final reading

The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved on third and final reading a bill that would provide access to medical marijuana.

House Bill 10439 permits the use of medical marijuana or medical cannabis for qualified patients. A total of 177 lawmakers voted in favor of the bill, with nine voting against and nine abstaining.

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.

Likewise, the bill establishes the Medical Cannabis Office (MCO), which will regulate the use of medical cannabis and ensure its accessibility.

The bill, however, prohibits the following acts:

• importation, cultivation, manufacture, storage and distribution of medical cannabis, its products, or derivative without permit from the MCO;
• 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;
• planting and growing for research and development without authority from the MCO;
• prescription and administration of medical cannabis by non-accredited physician;
• prescription and administration of medical cannabis for more than one year by accredited physician;
• use of medical cannabis without prescription or use beyond the prescribed dosage; and
• other analogous acts performed without authority by the MCO. 

A counterpart bill in the Senate was sponsored in the plenary in March. —VBL, GMA Integrated News