SENATOR Robinhood Padilla wants to legalize medical marijuana or cannabis as a “compassionate alternative means of medical treatment” in the Philippines.
In filing Senate Bill 230, the neophyte senator also sought the expansion of research into the medicinal properties of marijuana, which has been widely used as herbal medicine to treat conditions including gout, rheumatism, and malaria.
He also included safeguards in his bill to “ensure that abuses for casual use or profiteering” will be avoided.
“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,” he said in his bill.
Under the bill, medical cannabis, which refers to products such as capsules and oil, and not raw cannabis, may be used for “debilitating medical conditions” of “qualified patients.”
The bill 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, and diseases requiring hospice care.
It also includes 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.
It designates the DOH as the principal regulatory agency that shall establish Medical Cannabis Compassionate Centers in public tertiary hospitals. The DOH 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 will test medical cannabis products, while the Dangerous Drugs Board and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency will monitor and regulate medical cannabis.
Also, the DOH will issue registry ID cards to qualified medical cannabis patients.
