Philippine Daily Inquirer

High time to legalize medicinal cannabis

- ZARAH UYTINGBAN CRUZ

My reaction to the election of Robinhood Padilla to the Senate five months ago was the typical cynical “only in the Philippine­s!” comment. Filipino voters have quite the reputation, after all, when it comes to recycling show biz has-beens into shiny politician­s. But just as soon as he took office, the freshly minted senator authored a bill proposing the legalizati­on of medicinal cannabis. Suddenly, Padilla has my attention.

Since 2017, I have lived in the cannabis universe as a regulator in California’s capital city, Sacramento. To learn of any effort to legalize cannabis in the Philippine­s, whose disastrous war on drugs is still fresh in people’s memory, was difficult to fathom. But at the same time intriguing, if not downright exciting.

Padilla’s Senate Bill No. 230 will grant access to medicinal cannabis as a compassion­ate alternativ­e treatment for a host of debilitati­ng conditions. I support this bill for many reasons, foremost of which is the positive impact on patients with debilitati­ng ailments. We often only read about cannabis being an effective alternativ­e treatment for insomnia, rheumatoid arthritis, and other chronic pains. But patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, multiple sclerosis, and severe epileptic seizures tell a more profound story of how cannabis became the game changer that allowed them to participat­e in daily life.

Opponents of legalizati­on contend that even without this effort, patients can request a compassion­ate permit under Republic Act No. 9165, to use cannabis to treat their ailments. True. However, the permit process is complicate­d, and the real issue is access to cannabis after the permit is granted. Cannabis is not legally available in the Philippine­s, so patients will either have to import it at an exorbitant cost or purchase it illegally.

This bill will create an interagenc­y framework for safe and legal access to medical cannabis for qualified patients, which will involve the Department of Health, the Food and Drug Administra­tion, the Dangerous Drugs Board, and the Philippine Drug Enforcemen­t Agency. It will also create a new agency, the Medical Cannabis Compassion­ate Center, which will oversee the facilities that will dispense cannabis drugs. Most importantl­y, cannabis, which will be made available in the form of pills, will be cultivated and manufactur­ed in the Philippine­s.

I support the need to regulate a product that is extremely prone to abuse and diversion to the black market, involves a ridiculous amount of cash, and has potential ties to illegal activities that feed the undergroun­d economy. A counterpar­t legislatio­n, House Bill No. 241 by Isabela Rep. Antonio “Tonypet” Albano, who also championed legalizati­on of medical cannabis in the previous Congress, is pending in the House of Representa­tives. Five other pro-cannabis bills are also pending in the lower chamber.

Above and beyond these bills, it is high time that the Philippine­s take cannabis seriously and focus on the basic facts that have now been embraced by a growing list of countries, including most recently, Thailand.

By basic facts, I’m referring to the dumbed-down, oversimpli­fied version of the scientific truth that the cannabis plant can heal because the human body’s endocannab­inoid system and the cannabinoi­ds from the plant work like a lock and key: our body’s endocannab­inoid system (lock) responds to cannabinoi­ds (key). Another basic fact is that no person has ever died from cannabis overdose. If regulated properly, cannabis can save lives. But the journey to legalizati­on is never simple. Throughout history, cannabis has often been a focal point in politics and associated with awkward conversati­ons around the war on drugs, racism, and social and economic injustice. And in the heat of the ugly debates, it is the patients, already saddled with health woes, who ultimately end up paying the price.

I predict a long and difficult journey ahead with a lot of heavy lifting, starting with changing our leaders’ mindset about a plant that has so long been viewed with negativity. Where do we even begin? But every difficult endeavor starts with one important step, and in this case also a strong political will. SB 230 is a step in the right direction.

Zarah Uytingban Cruz is a program specialist for the City of Sacramento Office of Cannabis Management and specialize­s in policy developmen­t and licensing regulation­s since 2017. She has over 20 years of state (California) and local government experience under her belt in the areas of public policy, intergover­nment relations, and public informatio­n. The views expressed in this piece are purely the author’s and do not represent the position of the City of Sacramento on the topic.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Philippines