Both the Senate and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), through Senate President Tito Sotto and Director-General Nela Charade Puno, clarified that Filipinos are now allowed to use marijuana as medicine if they are suffering from serious and debilitating illness. According to Section 2 of Republic Act 9165 or Comprehensive Drugs Act of 2002, “People with legitimate medical needs are not prevented from being treated with adequate amounts of appropriate medications, which include the use of dangerous drugs”.
According to Sotto, patients only need to get the Compassionate Special Permit (CSP) from FDA for them to be allowed to use cannabis as medication. To apply for the CSP, the applicant needs to acquire signed application form from FDA, letter from the doctor who’s giving the prescription, medical abstract, and the amount of the medical cannabis they need. The FDA only provides CSP, which usually takes a week to get, to patients with worst condition such as cancer, AIDS, etc. and this can only be obtained if they passed the agency’s evaluation.
However, if there will be laws that would allow the cannabis oil (cannabidiol or CBD) on the market, the FDA will make sure that there is proper regulation on the production and on the use of this substance.
Atty. Katherine Austria-Lock, FDA OIC-Center for Drugs Regulation and Research said, “The medical marijuana must be registered from the country of origin. Everything must be specified on the request form. For example, if the patient needs 40 tablets, it must also be stated on the prescription”. The FDA also cleared that only the CBD and not the leaves are allowed for public consumption or use.
Meanwhile, Senator JV Ejercito, the Chairman of Senate committee on health stated, “If it will prolong the lives and ease the pain of cancer patients and those in pain and relieve their agony, why not?”.
According also to FDA, there were only three applications for CBD in the country since 2017 to 2018 but all of these applications have never been approved due to lack of documents that are required to get the CSP. For now, Philippines are still divided on this issue and many patients, especially those who are suffering from serious pain and health problems, are still left with no choice but to “wish for luck” and use expensive synthetic pharmaceutical drugs that are known to be toxic and harmful to our body.
With all these extrajudicial killings and brutal arrests due to Duterte’s “war on drugs” policy, not to mention the “legalities” of toxic substances on the market such as pesticides, cigarettes, etc. that are easily available even to children, some critics and experts are still “banging the drums” on social media saying that it is time for Filipinos to break away from corporate control on our healthcare and instead, empower and educate each other about House Bill 6517 and other ordinances supporting natural and holistic treatment.
Sources:
- ‘Medical marijuana pinapayagan pero may mga kondisyon’
- Fact check: Is medical marijuana already allowed in the Philippines?
