Safety nets in place for medical cannabis

A bill in the House of Representatives that allows marijuana or cannabis for medical purposes will incorporate safety nets to prevent aggravating the country's problems on drug abuse.

- SHEILA CRISOSTOMO

According to House committee on dangerous drugs chair and Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, the proposed bill mandates the removal of THC or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive ingredient in the marijuana plant that can cause addiction.

THC makes people feel euphoric when they smoke marijuana or eat food laced with it.

"If you remove the THC, what is left is the cannabidiol or the CBD.

That is not addictive. It's actually the part that has therapeutic effect," Barbers noted in a radio interview.

Barbers added that the bill provides that cannabis can be used "only by patients with debilitating and non-debilitating illnesses as determined by medical practitioners."