House panels jointly approve Medical Cannabis O ice bill

TWO House of Representatives committees jointly looking into the proposed legalization of medical cannabis have approved in principle a substitute bill creating a Medical Cannabis Office (MCO).

The MCO as proposed in the bill shall accredit, in coordination with the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), qualified physicians who shall be authorized to prescribe cannabidoil (CBD) as an alternative treatment for certain ailments, as what is now practiced in more than 60 countries.

Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte, said: “The proposed MCO, to be under DOH (Department of Health) supervision and control, shall be tasked likewise to accredit drugstores, hospitals, clinics, and dispensaries allowed to sell drugs containing CBD, which is the a non-addictive compound derived from the marijuana plant.”

Marijuana is on the list of the DDB’s dangerous drugs and will remain so under the proposed substitute bill.

Although the DOH-attached Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now issues compassionate special permits (CSPs) allowing qualified patients to use imported CBD drugs, Villafuerte said at the joint hearing that a new law authorizing the medical use of this alternative drug is still necessary because the FDA system for applying for CSP permits and importing drugs containing CBD is “so tedious, hard and expensive” that only one permit has been issued thus far by this agency.

Villafuerte is one of the lead authors of the consolidated substitute bill that was approved in principle by the House committees on dangerous drugs and on health in their joint hearing last week on the proposed legalization of medical cannabis.

He added that only the use of the nonaddictive CBD from marijuana (cannabis sativa) for medical purposes is being decriminalized under the still unnumbered House bill (HB), as marijuana or “Indian hemp” shall remain on the list of dangerous or illegal drugs under Republic Act 9165 or the “Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act” of 2002.