{"id":206421,"date":"2019-03-13T00:11:05","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T04:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=206421"},"modified":"2019-03-13T00:11:05","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T04:11:05","slug":"no-medical-marijuana-legalization-under-dutertes-term-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/03\/13\/no-medical-marijuana-legalization-under-dutertes-term-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"No medical marijuana legalization under Duterte\u2019s term: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Panelo further said the lack of definitive findings on the effectiveness of medical marijuana could be a reason for the President\u2019s reluctance to allow its legalization. (Pixabay Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte does not see the legalization of medical marijuana happening within his term since he does not want to risk the spread of addiction in the country, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo confirmed the President is no longer in favor of the legalization of marijuana even for medicinal purposes citing the risk that people could develop a dependence on the drug.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked him\u2026absolute? Yes. He doesn\u2019t like kasi ang feeling\u00a0niya<\/em>\u00a0you will be using that as an excuse\u00a0baka lumaki ng lumaki lang<\/em>\u00a0(He doesn\u2019t like to legalize it because he feels that people will be using it as an excuse to expand its use),\u201d Panelo said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaya not during my time sabi\u00a0niya. Sa ibang panahon siguro<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s why he said, \u2018not during my term. Perhaps some other time\u2019),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo further said the lack of definitive findings on the effectiveness of medical marijuana could be a reason for the President\u2019s reluctance to allow its legalization.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng sabi niya pa, dapat yung mga<\/em>\u00a0medical\u00a0muna ang mag<\/em>-decide\u00a0kung totoong nakakagamot \u2018yan. Kasi sa ngayon, hindi<\/em>\u00a0definitive\u00a0ang<\/em>findings —\u00a0may nagsasabing puwede, may nagsasabing hindi<\/em>\u00a0(The President said medical experts should first decide if it can really treat some conditions. Because now, the findings are not definitive — some say it can, some say it can\u2019t),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t want to risk the spread of addiction in this country,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Spokesperson, however, said that Duterte may still change his mind if definitive findings confirm its advantages.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung<\/em>\u00a0definitive\u00a0yung<\/em>\u00a0findings (If findings become definitive) he might change his mind,\u201d\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Panelo said Duterte\u2019s changed his mind about the legalization of medical marijuana noting that the chief executive may want more safeguards before its use is allowed in the country.<\/p>\n

Panelo said that the President himself admitted that he knew little about the use of medical marijuana with respect to specific cases.<\/p>\n

Duterte bared he is no longer in favor of the legalization of medical marijuana during a PDP-Laban campaign rally in Negros Occidental on March 8.<\/p>\n

The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 has listed marijuana as a prohibited substance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte does not see the legalization of medical marijuana happening within his term since he does …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":183342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}