Medical marijuana needs law to become legal in PHL —PNP

Marijuana is still a banned substance in the Philippines unless a new law is passed legalizing its use, Philippine National Police chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said on Tuesday.

Albayalde issued the statement after Catriona Gray expressed her support for medical marijuana in the Miss Universe pageant's question-and-answer part before winning the title on Monday.

"The PNP maintains that any national policy to legalize or regulate the use of marijuana for medical purposes requires legislative action based on careful study by professionals in the field of medicine and pharmacology," Albayalde said.

This, he added, can be "best addressed by a multi-disciplinary study, possibly with the Department of Health taking the lead."

Albayalde said medicinal marijuana should "come only in the form of pharmaceutical preparation derived from certain active ingredients, but not in its raw form as used for recreational smoking or ingestion."

Moreover, amid the absence of any enabling law that regulates and legalizes marijuana, Albayalde stressed that the plant its derivative substances and products remain prohibited under Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

The PNP chief, however, noted that the police alone cannot be the sole competent authority to recommend or enforse the idea of regulating the use of medicinal marijuana.

"We can only provide inputs along the enforcement aspect of regulatory laws," Albayalde said.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Monday said that Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act already allowed marijuana use in the field of medicine.

“It is just a matter of information campaign,” Sotto told reporters. The lawmaker made the remark on the heels of Catriona Gray's victory in the 2018 Miss Universe pageant on Monday, in which she expressed — in one of the Q&A portions — her approval of marijuana use for medicinal purposes but not for recreational ones.

Sotto said Section 2, Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act states that it is the policy of the State to safeguard the integrity of its territory and the well-being of its citizenry particularly the youth, from the harmful effects of dangerous drugs on their physical and mental well-being, and to defend the same against acts or omissions detrimental to their development and preservation.

“The government shall, however, aim to achieve a balance in the national drug control program so that people with legitimate medical needs are not prevented from being treated with adequate amounts of appropriate medications, which include the use of dangerous drugs,” Sotto quoted the provision in the law which he authored.

“Ang linaw nito. Ang ka-kombinasyon nito, ‘yung FDA Compassionate Special Permit Circular No. 2014-009,” he said.

He said the Food and Drug Administration also has Compassionate Special Permit Circular that provides access to drugs and medicines that are not registered in the Philippines for compassionate use.

He clarified that it is the attending physician’s responsibility to apply for the substance permit from the FDA. —NB, GMA News