The House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, jointly with the Committee on Health, on Tuesday approved a consolidated bill seeking to legalize the medical use of cannabis, reviving a measure filed in previous Congresses but never enacted into law.
The proposed legislation provides for compassionate access to medical cannabis, expanded scientific research and a regulatory framework governing its medical use.
Under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, the cultivation, possession, use, sale, administration, dispensation, delivery, distribution and transportation of marijuana remain punishable as crimes.
Cannabis is classified under Schedule I of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which limits the production, manufacture, export, import, distribution and possession of the substance exclusively to medical and scientific purposes.
The approved bill seeks to align with these restrictions by allowing medical use only and does not legalize recreational marijuana.
It proposes creating a Medical Cannabis Office within the Department of Health (DoH) to oversee the licensing of cultivation, manufacturing and distribution.
Cannabis would be made available solely in pharmaceutical forms, such as oils and capsules, and only to patients with specific, debilitating, or chronic medical conditions.
Patients would be required to obtain a prescription from a DoH-accredited physician and to obtain the medication from licensed Medical Cannabis Compassionate Centers.
While authorizing medical use, the bill does not remove cannabis from the list of dangerous drugs under Republic Act 9165.
The measure is part of a long-running effort in Congress to allow medical marijuana, with previous versions having been passed by the House in earlier Congresses.
The bill will next be taken up at the plenary for debate and voting.