Atienza to Duterte: “Kapag pinirmahan mo ‘yang batas na ‘yan. Ibig sabihin hindi totoo ‘yang kampanya n’yo”

Friday – “Kapag pinirmahan mo ‘yang batas na ‘yan. Ibig sabihin hindi totoo ‘yang kampanya n’yo (If you signed that bill, it only means that your campaign, referring to President Rodrigo Duterte’s War on Drugs campaign, is not real)” this was what Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza said on his speech in the “The Truth About Marijuana” forum at the University of the Philippines-Manila, trying to discouraged President Rodrigo Duterte from signing the medical marijuana bill.
According to the former Manila politiko, the proposed Philippine Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act will weaken President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

It was in September when the House Bill 6517 or the proposed “Philippine Medical Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act” was approved by the House committee on health, following consultations with patients, advocacy groups, health care practitioners and experts.

According to Atienza, there is a counterpart bills on compassionate medical marijuana that the House of Representatives and the Senate would pass wherein, he and other advocates will seek an audience with Duterte.

“If this measure is approved by the lower house and if by chance, the Senate [approves a counterpart bill]… pumunta tayo kay Presidente Duterte,” he said.

But Dr. Carissa Dioquino-Maligaso, National Poison Management and Control Center head and one of the oppositors of the bill, said at the forum that the use of Marijuana for medical purposes doesn’t need a law to be used.

“[Tumulong] tayo sa masusing pagaaral tungkol sa paggamit ng marijuana bilang gamot, pero sa palagay namin, hindi kailangan ang batas para gawin ito, lalo na ang HB 6517 (Let’s help on the scrupulous research on the use of Marijuana as medicine, but we think, law is not necessary to d this, specially the HB 6517),” Dr. Carissa Dioquino-Maligaso said.

Aside from Dr. Carissa, Neurology expert Dr. Leonor Cabral-Lim also support the said bill and said that, “the proposed bill is redundant as the Dangerous Drugs Board’s Board Regulation No. 1 Series of 2014 already permits the use of marijuana for medical and scientific research.

Some senators have also pointed out that medical marijuana is already permitted under Section 3, Paragraph C of the bill, which means that any entity that claims to conduct scientific and medical research can obtain a license from the Department of Health to operate as a Medical Cannabis Compassionate Center (MCCC) and Medical Cannabis Research and Safety Compliance Facility (MCRSCF) to cultivate cannabis.”