File picture
MANILA, Philippines — The Home of Representatives on Tuesday handed on third and remaining studying a measure legalizing the medical use of marijuana.
On Tuesday’s plenary session, 177 lawmakers voted to approve Home Invoice No. 10439 or the proposed Entry to Medical Hashish Act whereas 9 of their colleagues thumbed down the draft measure and 9 others abstained.
READ: Advocates hopeful regulation on medical hashish to be handed this yr
HB 10439 would enable the usage of medical hashish (marijuana), making it accessible to certified sufferers, and create a Medical Hashish Workplace as a regulatory physique.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, one of many sponsors of the measure, emphasised that the invoice was solely meant to permit sufferers to have entry to marijuana much like making pharmaceutical merchandise accessible to them.
READ: DOH: Regulation on medical marijuana have to be science-based
The chair of the Home committee on harmful medicine mentioned, “In no way is that this invoice a gateway to the leisure use of hashish,” as marijuana would stay on the listing of harmful and unlawful medicine.
HB 10439 would legalize the usage of marijuana for certified sufferers with debilitating or nondebilitating medical circumstances or signs, with entry solely accessible by prescription and supervision of an accredited doctor.
The draft measure would set the laws for medical hashish’ cultivation, manufacture, distribution for medical and analysis functions, in addition to its prescription and dispensation to sufferers.
The Medical Hashish Workplace, which might be underneath the Division of Well being, would oversee implementation, together with licensing and enforcement, and work with the Harmful Medication Board in making certain compliance to security and safety necessities to forestall the nonmedical or leisure use of marijuana.
An analogous measure, the proposed Philippine Compassionate Medical Hashish Act, was handed on third and remaining studying by the Home in January 2019, throughout the seventeenth Congress.
However after then President Rodrigo Duterte modified his thoughts about supporting such a invoice, the Senate didn’t pursue its model of that measure.
Final February, the Philippine Medical Affiliation expressed its opposition to HB 10439, saying it will “open the floodgates for the legalization of leisure marijuana.”
Your subscription couldn’t be saved. Please strive once more.
Your subscription has been profitable.
Well being reform advocate Dr. Tony Leachon additionally opposed that invoice, saying that it was being “railroaded with out listening to the medical neighborhood.” —with a report from Inquirer Analysis
