EDITORIAL – Medical marijuana bill flirts with the devil

Marijuana admittedly must have some medical uses. After all, so do ampalaya, banaba, bayabas, papaya, malunggay and a whole BRP Gregorio del Pilar load of other indigenous plants that have, over time, been proven both traditionally and scientifically to have very effective medical uses. The problem is that marijuana is addictive and therefore prone to abuse, hence its current illegal status.

But all that may soon change if a few congressmen can have their way. These congressmen have filed a bill seeking to make legal the compassionate medical use of marijuana. Why they consider the medical use of marijuana a compassionate act invites the question as to whether they do not consider as similarly compassionate the use of other medications or drugs, given the fact that all drugs, administered according to dosage and purpose, are supposed to cure suffering and ease pain.

That none of the proponents are even doctors suggests the proposal could just be a lame excuse to stir up controversy in time for the elections. But granting they have no ulterior political motives behind the proposal, it is still too out of the blue and off on a limb considering the fact that given today's great leaps in medical research and innovations, there should not even be any need to flirt with the devil.

Oh sure, some states in America have legalized medical pot, in the same manner that they have legalized abortion and same sex marriage. But why is it that when we look toward the west for lack of anything better to do, it is always the controversial and potentially disastrous that we choose to emulate. When we look longingly to America, why don't we try to emulate instead their industry and their discipline?

The capacity of Americans to work their butts out and to obey traffic rules never seems to inspire Filipinos. But when men with testicles marry other men with testicles in America, we jump up the nearest tree and, pointing in that direction, start screaming woo, woo, woo like chimpanzees. How disorganized we have allowed our priorities to become.

At this very moment there is no dearth of marijuana in the Philippines. But it is being cultivated by the hectares for purposes that have nothing to do with what inherent medicinal value they may actually have. On the other hand, the medical cases that legitimately have some use for marijuana are either too few to merit a change in our country's legal standpoint on the plant or are not without alternative and perhaps more effective cures that enjoy the added advantage of being legal.

As the saying goes - if it ain’t broke don't fix it. By and large, Filipinos over the centuries have dealt with life's infirmities and pains without having to resort to something that is not legal. How disappointing that, having gone this far, we should do so now. This initiative by a few congressmen who are not really even familiar with the subject of their bill must be stopped, must be nipped in the bud. The medical marijuana bill must be killed.