No need for law legalizing medical marijuana – Sotto

Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2020 05:39:03 +0000

Senate President Vicente Sotto III maintained on Tuesday that there is no need for Congress to pass a law legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Sotto reiterated his position on the matter after the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) announced that it has approved in principle a proposed regulation allowing the use of the cannabidoil (CBD) for treating certain rare forms of epilepsy.

The Senate leader said he will not object to the DDB’s approval of the CBD but stressed that it should only be used for medical purposes and within government guidelines.

In his statement, Sotto said that approval of the CBD proves that “there is no need for Congress to lose time and waste efforts to legislate a law that will make legal the use of cannabis for medical purposes.”

“The DDB move proves the law being proposed in the HOR (House of Representatives) is unnecessary. There are more important proposed legislations that our honorable counterparts at the HOR should spend their time on. I hope they give priority to measures that will have more impact on the most number of our countrymen,” he added.

Sotto, who also chaired the DDB years ago, said the use of cannabis for medical purposes is already authorized under Republic Act No. 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

He quoted Section 2 of the law stating that “the government shall aim to ac
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