Why The Philippines should Legalize Medical Marijuana

Abstract

Marijuana, also known as cannabis are dried leaves of the pistil hemp plant that give off THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and are smoked in cigarette for their intoxicating effect. Since 2700BC, it is being used for medical purposes by Greeks and Egyptians. Efforts to legalize marijuana as medicine in the United States have grown significantly in recent years however, in the Philippines this drug is considered illegal but it should be legalized for medical use. Charlotte Figi, a six-year-old girl who suffered from an untreatable form of epilepsy was once featured in CNN because of her miraculous story. When she was two years old, her parents tried literally all medications to cure her, unfortunately none of those medications saved her from the disease. Having several seizures, a night, her parents got a chance to get her a medical marijuana card in Colorado and from that, after her first dose of high Cannabidiol (CBD) her seizures immediately stopped. This was because of the law implemented in Colorado, which permits purchase and possession of up to one ounce of cannabis per person and residents may grow up to four plants at home (Young, S. 2013).

Another story from Wil Dasovich, a 26-year old vlogger and YouTube influencer was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer on August 2017. After a harrowing 6 months journey, on February 2018, Dasovich said that he is already cancer-free. On an interview with ANC News, the vlogger revealed that medical marijuana helped him while he was undergoing chemotherapy. He claims that marijuana became an aid for his appetite and made the whole process of healing easier. Legalizing the use of cannabis or popularly known as marijuana can be an aid in medicine because it can provide several health care benefits in curing diseases, the economy will grow in dissolving marijuana in the black market, and it may reduce deaths due to opiate overdose.

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According to White (2016), the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) has admitted that marijuana kills cancer cells, they claim studies and experiments with mice which demonstrated that cannabinoids can destroy cancer cells while protecting noncancerous cells. The chemical found in marijuana was found to be effective at combating colon cancer, liver cancer, breast cancer and various other forms of the disease. Another experiment was also conducted to epileptic mice by Virginia Commonwealth University, to test how cannabis could help seizures in epilepsy. The result from the study showed how marijuana stopped the seizures in about 10 hours, they found out that the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) controlled the seizures by binding the brain cells responsible for controlling excitability and regulating relaxation, which proved that marijuana can be an alternative treatment for epileptic seizures (De Lorenzo, 2003). Moreover, a published journal examined the effects of consistent marijuana use on Crohn's patients who suffered from severe cases of the disease. Based from the findings, the plant produced beneficial effects for patients with inflammatory bowel diseases which suggests that marijuana can help patients upon experiencing the disease (Weller, 2013).

Aside from the medical benefits that marijuana could give, legalizing the use of this herb as medicine is considered to be one of the most efficient ways to generate new economic activity. It is evident from the experiences of Colorado and Washington, both states get benefits from revenues which increases from excise and sales tax. As the industry grows, the states have benefitted from investments in cultivation and retailing infrastructure. Marijuana businesses in Colorado, reported approximately $1.1 billion in legal sales of medical and recreational marijuana in October 2016, according to the tax data from the state's Department of Revenue. Upon implementing the law that allows the use of this herb in the state, it also created a total of 18,005 fulltime equivalent jobs in 2015. Among those jobs, 4407 were hired for retail operations, 2,770 for administration, 2,015 for manufacturing, 1,889 for management and 1,551 as agriculture specialists (Marijuana Policy Group, 2016).

According to Hajizadeh (2016), the most appealing argument in favor of legalization of marijuana is the increased tax revenue that it would bring to the economy of Canada. Since there is a high demand for recreational marijuana this would give rise to substantial growth of tax revenue. The illegal market price of marijuana is estimated to be particularly low without taxation. This would allow for the Government to impose higher taxes on marijuana while keeping the price abreast with other intoxicants such as alcohol and tobacco. The legalization of marijuana is estimated to create a $10 billion a year industry which is based on the results of a report by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) while the estimated potential tax revenues done by the Department of Taxation and Finance estimated to be approximately $1.7 billion to $3.5 billion annually. In a study of the New York State Department of Health states that legalizing marijuana is anticipated to lead to a reduction in costs associated with illegal marijuana, including police time, court costs, prison costs and administrative fees. According to a report by Statistics Canada, there were 73000 marijuana-related criminal offences in 2013. The present marijuana policy and legal framework is related with significant government expenses of approximately $500 million to $1 billion29 per annum. Legalization of marijuana could prompt to considerable savings in drug imprisonment and enforcement costs. Furthermore, the legalization of marijuana could generate jobs opportunities in the economy. Legalization could result in the employment of more workers who can develop and bundle marijuana available to be purchased in the Government endorsed grow-ops. It also could produce some other openings for work for people who can work in educational sessions and health promotion initiatives to advance safe utilization of the drug (“Assessment and potential, “2018).

Furthermore Uy (2015), claims that 75 percent of Filipino cancer victims die from chronic pain. To relieve that constant pain, the number of opiate prescriptions has nearly doubled over the last decade. The huge number of cases all over the world causes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially labeled the problem as an opiate epidemic. However, since marijuana is legal in Colorado, some of them were given a chance to overcome this epidemic. With that, in 2014, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center found out that opioid overdose deaths decreased by approximately 25 percent. Another study by Greenspoon, the idea of using marijuana to mitigate the opiate crisis may seem counterintuitive to many people in the medical community. Medical marijuana is a divisive issue, and many intelligent, thoughtful people voice these concerns. One of the studies, a longitudinal analysis of the number of opioid prescriptions filled under Medicare Part D, showed that when medical marijuana laws went into effect in a given state, opioid prescriptions fell by 2.21 million daily doses filled per year. Healthcare providers, whether they are pro-, neutral, or anti-medical marijuana, need to leave their prejudices outside the exam room (Greenspoon, 2018). Many medical marijuana patients report using marijuana to alleviate chronic pain from musculoskeletal problems and other sources. A study by David P.,Pacula R.L. and Jacobson M., states that to assess this issue, they studied the impact of medical marijuana laws on problematic opioid use. They used two measures of problematic use: treatment admissions for opioid pain reliever addiction from the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) and state-level opioid overdose deaths in the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS). Their findings suggest that providing broader access to medical marijuana may have the potential benefit of reducing abuse of highly addictive painkillers (David P.,Pacula R.L. & Jacobson M., 2015).

Medication for several diseases, increase of economic growth and reduction of death due to opiate abuse are some benefits we may have upon decriminalizing cannabis. Several evidences presented proves that marijuana is not that harmful at all as people think of it. Perhaps, some are thinking that there are people who will be exposed to too much THC, but by the restriction of the government that will not happen. We must not think of it as dangerous instead let us consider helping the economy grow, saving several people suffering from chronic diseases and from opiate overdose. Hence, marijuana should be legalized all over the world, let us make use of the possible advantages that the nature offers us. Cannabis should no longer be grouped with cocaine and heroin, but with other recreational drugs such as caffeine and cigarette. The government should allow and made it available in the market for medical purposes.