Government
Is There Hope for the Philippines to Legalize Marijuana Now That Anti-Drug Zealot President Duterte is Out?
With President Duterte, King Of The Philippines’ Deadly War On Drugs Finally Out Of Office, Is There Hope for Legal Weed?
With President Duterte, King Of The Philippines’ Deadly War On Drugs Finally Out Of Office, Is There Hope For Legalizing Marijuana?
June 30th, 2016 was the beginning of some of the Philippines’ darkest days.
That was the day that Rodrigo Roa Duterte, former president of the Philippines, assumed office. While he was known for his numerous political accomplishments serving 7 terms as the mayor of Davao, he was also notorious for his hatred towards drugs.
And since the day he assumed office as president of the Philippines, thousands of unjust deaths supposedly related to the war on drugs took place around the country. It was a dark, bloody time: it’s believed that more than 12,000 Filipinos died because of the war though some 2,500 of these deaths were linked to the local police authorities. Regardless, this campaign unleashed a war that should not have taken lives at all.
According to Duterte, illegal drugs were the biggest hindrance to the survival of the country, preventing it from succeeding as a nation. In his eyes, people who used illegal drugs as well as those who pushed and sold them were free game – they could be killed by anyone even in broad daylight, without due process being served. Of course it caught the attention of human rights watchers globally, but he showed no remorse. People who used drugs, sold them, or even those without proof of doing so could be killed. It was a killing spree.
Under Duterte’s term, there was no way in hell that any bill trying to legalize medical marijuana would progress – even if his own ex-wife supposedly was using it to help cope with breast cancer. However, progressive lawmakers have been fighting to legalize medical marijuana in the Philippines since 2014. They were trying to get a bill into Congress though there has been very little progress made especially when Duterte assumed the presidency.
But something surprising happened in 2017: President Duterte’s spokesman said that he would be open to bills legalizing medical marijuana, which led to the third reading of House Bill No. 6517, also known as the Philippine Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act. But there always seems to be roadblocks…. In 2019, the bill was blocked by the Senate when it seemed as if Duterte had a change of heart saying that he will not allow medical marijuana to be legalized in his time.
Yes, he tends to eat his words a lot.
Thankfully, his term has just ended and the Philippines now has a new president in place: Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.
Marcos: Next In Line
Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. also known as Bong Bong Marcos, is by no means a lesser evil: the Filipino people elected the son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, notorious for his iron rule in the country from 1965 to 1986, and placing the Philippines under martial law, which many recall as the dark ages. For fourteen years, the Marcos administration was able to get away with numerous human rights abuses especially against journalists who tried to speak up against the Marcos government.
And now, his son is in power.
But when it comes to legalizing marijuana, he might just be the president we needed.
There are rumors circulating that he does have sort of an open and liberal attitude when it comes to drug use. We won’t know that for sure because there is no evidence whatsoever at the moment, but if it is true then it could be good news.
In addition, a Filipino actor named Robin Padilla, whose political name is Senator Robinhood Padilla, was also voted into power during the last elections. A man with hardly any political background, but could this Robinhood be the man to finally help the Philippines progress with legal medical marijuana?
Sen. Padilla has been pushing for its legalization in recent weeks by filing Senate Bill 230, which would encourage research on the uses of medical cannabis, provide training for medical professionals on its use, and help people who need it, reports The Philippine Star. “The State should, by way of exception, allow the use of cannabis for compassionate purposes to promote the health and well-being of citizens proven to be in dire need of such while at the same time providing the strictest regulations to ensure that abuses for casual use or profiteering would be avoided,” said Padilla in the bill.
Furthermore, the bill states that medical marijuana, including products such as oil and capsules but not raw cannabis, can be given for “debilitating medical conditions of qualified patients.” According to the bill, these conditions are to include cancer, HIV/AIDS, sleep disorders, nausea, epilepsy, migraines, and other conditions that the Department of Health identifies.
These are only baby steps, but they are important.
Currently, it remains fairly simple for people to illegally source marijuana products through the black market in the Philippines. There are also a few non-government organizations and private entities that supply underground cannabis oil to those who are in need.
However, legalization is still an important step forward because decriminalizing it would remove the penalties associated with its use especially for those who are sick and need it for themselves of their children. Legalization will also ensure fair pricing of pharmaceutical-grade cannabis that patients can make use of, and so that patients can have a steady supply of the medicine that they need.
Hopefully, this administration will be the one to propel the Philippines forward and allow the country to perhaps be next in Asia after Thailand to legalize marijuana.
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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