QUEZON CITY — International organizations have expressed their desire to decriminalize Cannabis or Marijuana.
In the Medical Cannabis Symposium held at the Ayala Malls in Paranaque City on Tuesday (Nov. 21), Dr. Gem Mutia said that the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the United States is saying that Marijuana abuse should be treated and not penalized.
However, Dr. Mutia noted that the harmful effects of Cannabis are being used by those who are against Marijuana to criminalize it but the researchers themselves are in favor of decriminalizing it.
Dr. Mutia, the founder of the Philippine Society of Cannabinoid Medicine, also said that medicalization and legalization of Cannabis are two different things.
Dr. Mutia, an adult medicine specialist, added however that both medicalization and legalization of Cannabis can work together.
He cited Senate Bill 6783, which was sponsored by Senator Robin Padilla, seeking the medicalization and legalization of Cannabis, along with eight other proposed bills in the Senate in the 19th Congress.
After all the hearings in Congress of the 19th Congress, advocates of Medical Cannabis are hoping that the proposed bills on medicalization and legalization of Medical Cannabis will be passed and enacted into law in the 19th Congress and signed into law by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr.before the end of 2024. – By Perfecto T. Raymundo, Jr.
