House passes on third and final reading bill legalizing medical marijuana
The House of Representatives on July 30, Tuesday, approved on the third and final reading a bill seeking to allow qualified patients access to medical cannabis or marijuana.
House Bill No. 10439, or the "Access to Medical Cannabis Bill," was passed after getting 177 affirmative votes, nine negative votes, and nine abstentions.
Isabela 6th District Rep. Faustino "Inno" Dy moved to consider the bill's passage, while Deputy Speaker Tonypet Albano of Isabela 1st District served as the presiding officer of the plenary session.
"I would also like to thank everyone who voted for that because this has been in the making for four Congresses," Albano said. "We would like to appeal to our colleagues in the Senate to hopefully expedite and pass this for the president to approve this into law so we can provide medical access to all those people who are in need of the medicines."
According to the bill, qualified patients must be diagnosed by an accredited physician as having either non-debilitating or debilitating medical conditions like cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic autoimmune inflammatory disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder, among others.
The measure also establishes the Medical Cannabis Office, which shall be the primary regulatory body for medical marijuana.
The bill, however, doesn't allow the following:
- importation, cultivation, manufacture, storage, and distribution of medical cannabis, its products, or derivative without permit from the MCO;
- selling of or trading with medical cannabis to patients, doctors, drugstores, hospitals, clinics, dispensaries, and other medical facilities without authority, license or accreditation from the MCO;
- planting and growing for research and development without authority from the MCO;
- prescription and administration of medical cannabis by non-accredited physician;
- prescription and administration of medical cannabis for more than one year by accredited physician;
- use of medical cannabis without prescription or use beyond the prescribed dosage; and
- other analogous acts performed without authority by the MCO.
Violations incur a fine ranging from P500,000 to P1 million or imprisonment from six months to six years.
The professional license or accreditation of facilities may also be suspended or revoked.
Last March, Sen. Robin Padilla sponsored a counterpart bill, Senate Bill 2573 or the Cannabis Medicalization Act, during the plenary session.
According to Harvard Medical School, medical marijuana uses the cannabis plant or chemicals in it to treat symptoms or conditions.
The cannabis plant contains over 100 different chemicals called cannabinoids, with each one having a different effect on the body.
The main chemicals used in the medicine are Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD).
Medical marijuana mostly comes in the same forms as the recreational kind, but there are also highly purified and lab-made versions used for certain conditions.
