Opposing the medical marijuana bill

Filipino physicians based in the US reject the proposed new legislation in the Philippines that seeks to authorize the prescription of medical marijuana for a variety of ailments, warning against the high risk of abuse owing to the addictive effects of the illegal drug.

“We currently have enough drug addiction problems in the Philippines and certainly do not want to add more,” said Dr. Philip S. Chua, a heart surgeon and chairman of the Filipino United Network (FUN)-USA.

FUN-USA is “a humanitarian foundation composed of Filipino-American associations and medical graduates of the Philippines now practicing in the US.

“While as a heart surgeon I am personally in favor of therapeutic marijuana for those medical cases that do not respond to standard medical care, I feel as you do that this will be abused in our country and turn the Philippines into a zombie nation as you stated. This is already happening in America,” Chua said.

I, the senior deputy minority leader, have been at the forefront of the opposition to the passage of the proposed Act Providing Filipinos Right of Access to Medical Marijuana, or House Bill (HB) 6517.

Filipino lawmakers should vote against the passage of HB 6517, which is “a potentially disastrous bill,” according to Chua, who writes a regular column for a national daily in the Philippines and five newspapers in America.

Once enacted, the bill will create a gaping loophole in the country’s Dangerous Drugs Law “that is guaranteed to be exploited aggressively by criminal drug syndicates.”

Congress will in effect be planting the seeds of a new public health emergency as well as a new law enforcement problem.

The 63-member House committee on health has already endorsed HB 6517 for plenary approval, and floor debates on the measure are expected to begin when Congress reconvenes on Nov. 20.