Lawmaker responds to medical community on medical cannabis bill issues

In the interest of truth and to keep the public properly informed, Congressman Rodolfo Albano III, principal author of HB 6517 or the “Philippine Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act”  responded to the statement issued by the medical community  led by the Philippine Medical Association on November 7, 2017.

Contrary to the claim that “HB 6517 will expose to our citizens to a natural, uncontrolled human experiment with Cannabis and its derivatives,” Cong. Albano pointed out that the bill explicitly provides that “the Department of Health in consultation with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shall be the principal regulatory agency for the use of medical cannabis.”

It further provides that DOH shall “authorize the National Institutes of Health, the research arm of the University of the Philippines, Manila; the Health Sciences Center of the UP System; the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITACH) and two other organizations it may deem qualified to conduct research on the use of medical cannabis.”

All of these are reputable, professional research institutions that strictly follow the National Ethical Guidelines for Health Research issued by the government in 2006. 

These guidelines include seven criteria for ethical clearance of a research protocol that includes the “nature and gravity of the risk to human subjects;  the adequacy of safeguards and protection against risk; the magnitude of potential benefits or harm to individuals or community; and the validity of the study participants’ informed consent.”

All applications for clinical trial proposals submitted to FDA pass through the Institutional Review/Ethical Review Board (IRB/ERB) for conduct, ethical and technical review.

The FDA must approve all four phases of the clinical trial. There is thus absolutely no basis for the claim that “this human experiment under the guise of law requires no informed consent, no approval from a professional Institutional Review Board, no protection from our drug regulatory agency and no recourse for unfavorable consequences.

Cong. Albano calls on the authors of the Statement not to mislead, confuse and alarm  the public by making false, unfounded accusations. He also questions whether the statement is the position of a few leaders rather than the majority of the members of the cited organizations.

As well, he strongly suggests that they read the bill carefully bearing in mind the interest of the thousands of patients suffering from serious and debilitating conditions who will benefit from the legalization of medical cannabis.

He also reminded them of the people’s right to affordable, accessible, available quality health care through the development of traditional and alternative health care services and its integration into the national health care delivery system. — Office of Rep. RODOLFO T. ALBANO III, First District, Isabela