A Senate well being and demography subcommittee on Thursday terminated its deliberations on the proposed Medical Cannabis Compassionate Access Act.
Senator Robin Padilla, who chairs the subcommittee, adjourned the assembly after three hearings on the matter.
Before ending the listening to, Padilla requested the stakeholders and the useful resource individuals within the listening to to help and assist the panel in crafting the committee report by a technical working group.
“Inaasahan ko rin po ang inyong suporta kapag umusad na sa plenaryo ang panukalang ito. Ito pong oras na ito ang atin pong pagdinig ay atin na pong tatapusin,” Padilla stated.
[We are expecting your support once this reaches the plenary. We are terminating our hearing today.]
At the early a part of the listening to, Ricardo Penson, president and CEO of Penson and Company Inc., shared to the committee their research tour in Israel final May the place he and Padilla had an ocular go to to the services which produce pharmaceutical grade hashish.
During the go to, Penson stated they met with the Israel Medical Cannabis Agency and so they discovered that from the planting and farming stage, they ensure that the hashish is pharmaceutical grade already.
“They do not allow the introduction of any microbes or germs on the plant itself. In fact, they are all grown without the use of soil,” he stated.
Penson instructed the Department of Agriculture to check this as Israel crops their hashish utilizing coconut hemps and never soil.
With the instruction to permit hashish for medical functions and never for leisure use, Penson stated Israel’s Ministry of Health had labored with their Ministry of Agriculture to conduct analysis and improvement.
So far, Israel has developed round 160 strains of hashish—every of which targets a particular medical situation.
In phrases of regulating the usage of medical hashish, Penson stated the product has a barcode which might be monitored by the company till the product is consumed by the affected person.
“It is tracked to which dispensary or pharmacy it went through, which doctor issued the prescription for use of that, kung sinong pasyente ang tumanggap ng prescription, saang drugstore or pharmacy binili, ilang araw niya na-consume. Pag-surrender ng package tiyaka lang nila ite-terminate yung barcode na yon na consumed na,” he stated.
[It is tracked to which dispensary or pharmacy it went through, which doctor issued the prescription for use of that, who is the patient who received the prescription, from what drugstore or pharmacy was it purchased, and for how long did the patient consume it. Once the package has been surrendered, only then will the barcode be terminated.]
“Yung full cycle nila na yan ang siguro kailangan din nating matingnan nang maigi dito sa ating bansa kung ito ay matuloy na magawa natin dahil ang tungkulin po ng estado dito ay yung monitoring, yung [regulation],” he added.
[That full cycle will have to be looked into here in our country because once it is legalized, it will be the duty of the State to do the monitoring, the regulation.]
Penson defined the usage of the time period hashish, saying marijuana shouldn’t be a scientific identify and a viable identify for this plant.
“[Marijuana] was only a discriminatory name given to the cannabis dahil pagtawid galing sa Mexico papuntang America, tinawag nilang Maria Juana (because when it arrived in America from Mexico, they called it Maria Juana),” Penson stated.
Israel mannequin
In his opening assertion, Padilla stated their research of Israel’s mannequin will probably be included in his proposal to permit the usage of hashish for medical functions.
“Kilala po ang Israel bilang isa sa mga bansang mayroong pinaka-maayos at pinaka malinaw na batas at regulasyon sa medical cannabis. Sila rin po ang may pinaka-mayabong na pag-aaral at pananaliksik ukol dito. At kung usapin lang din ng law enforcement o pagpapatupad ng batas, wala nang mas hihigpit pa sa Israel. Ang ating nasaliksik sa Israel ay isasama natin sa ating balangkas na batas na tugma din sa pangangailangan ng medical cannabis dito sa atin,” he stated.
[Israel is renowned as a country with the clearest laws and regulations on medical cannabis. They have the most comprehensive research on the matter. On the enforcement of laws, nothing can beat Israel. What we learned from our study tour of Israel, we will include in our proposed measure on medical cannabis in the Philippines.]
He reiterated that the measure is to provide sufferers the proper to decide on accessible choices for his or her medical circumstances.
“Obligasyon po natin bilang isang mambabatas na punuan ito – na bigyan ng kalayaang mamili ang may karamdaman ng paraan ng paggagamot na sa tingin niya ay nararapat sa kanya, kaagapay ng prescription ng kanyang doktor,” he stated.
(Our obligation as lawmakers is to permit individuals the liberty to decide on their methodology of remedy that they suppose is greatest, and in accordance with the prescription of their medical doctors.) — RSJ, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
