New published literature, covering the years 2018-2021, also describe additional deleterious effects arising from use of cannabis and cannabis products such as increased risk for stroke, adverse neurocognitive effects among adolescents, intractable vomiting, psychosis, cardiovascular disease, and many more.

December 15, 2022 — In a statement issued last December 7, 2022, the University of the Philippines Manila expressed opposition to SB 230 that grants access to Medical Cannabis as a Compassionate Alternative Means of Medical Treatment, among its provisions.

UP Manila maintains that any law created for the protection and maintenance of the health of the Filipinos should be evidence-based. However, SB 230 cited the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowing the compassionate use of medicines with established efficacy when these drugs are not yet registered in the Philippines.

The reconstituted Technical Working Group (TWG) that prepared the statement is composed of academic and medical/clinical experts from different fields of medical sciences, health sciences, and health social sciences doing research, teaching, and practice in the health professions. They come from the UP Manila National Institutes of Health, College of Medicine-Philippine General Hospital, National Poison Management and Control Center, PGH Cancer Institute, and College of Arts and Sciences.

The TWG members state that anecdotes from positive patient experiences from unlicensed use on various conditions that were treated are not enough to qualify as “evidence-based” on the efficacy of cannabis.

According to the statement, cannabis, a Schedule I drug by international conventions means that cannabis is viewed to have no current medical use and has a high potential for abuse and/or addiction.

The TWG members state that anecdotes from positive patient experiences from unlicensed use on various conditions that were treated are not enough to qualify as “evidence-based” on the efficacy of cannabis. Published literature between 2018-2021 revealed additional deleterious effects while preliminary studies after medical cannabis’ legalization in Thailand both “show a pattern of misinformation, misuse and abuse”.

While the bill also stipulates expanding research into cannabis’ medicinal properties, the statement cites existing provisions in RA 9165, the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 that already allow research on its medicinal properties.

New published literature, covering the years 2018-2021, also describe additional deleterious effects arising from use of cannabis and cannabis products such as increased risk for stroke, adverse neurocognitive effects among adolescents, intractable vomiting, psychosis, cardiovascular disease, and many more.

The statement’s other key points are as follows:

• Senate bill 230 cannot answer the need for compassionate use of medical marijuana. Tertiary government hospitals may not have the human resource and infrastructure to grow marijuana, develop medicinal products from cannabis, manufacture pills or oils and administer them to patients; 
• Selected synthetic cannabinoids (e.g. dronabinol and nabilone approved for treatment of nausea and vomiting) can be administered through a compassionate use permit;
• Access of cannabis-based medicines should be limited in the research setting until more robust evidence is available;
• More rigorous scientific research on medical marijuana should be conducted and funded; and
• The UP-National Institutes of Health and UP-PGH are exploring treatment protocols for those with Lennox Gastaut syndrome and Dravet Syndrome 

Haziel May C. Natorilla and Cynthia M. Villamor