[OPINION] The morality tale of cannabis sativa

The third millennium began in the United States with medical marijuana legally sold in 33 states and the District of Columbia, the country’s power center. It was 1999 – two decades since Washington DC waged a simultaneous war with communists and “mind-bending” drugs derived from the natural world, like the marijuana shrub and its sister hemp. Demonizing cannabis eventually led to the death penalty for mere possession.

But America’s worldwide war against marijuana, coca, opium, and mescaline ironically revived far older indigenous medical traditions in the American continent and beyond. The government itself stirred the pot of powerful sacred drugs, including tobacco, as part of ancient religious practice, converting many young people to the old American Indian ways of communicating with invisible reality. In many cases, such communication strengthened the peacemaking of conscientious objectors in a country forever at war.    

By 1999, wonder of wonders, small producers and sales outlets for cannabis sativa oil, cannabidiol, were growing by leaps and bounds. The war against marijuana was going the opposite direction from its origins. State ignorance about the real nature of this “enemy” was revealing itself.

Historical forces tilted back in those two decades that led to the third millennium. Many countries that criminalized cannabis sativa under US influence gradually decriminalized it. Simple possession became a non-criminal offense similar to a minor traffic violation.   

Tracking the legality of cannabis sativa in these countries and subnational jurisdictions in those years is like peering into a fast transforming mind map of cultures and subcultures. Instead of all-out prohibition we see limited prohibition in many countries like Spain and the Netherlands, where the sale of cannabis is now allowed in licensed establishments. 

Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jamaica,Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, and Thailand all legalized medical marijuana. Countries with more restrictive laws allowed the use of certain cannabis-derived pharmaceutical drugs. The District of Columbia legalized medical cannabis but kept it prohibited at the federal level even for medical use. 

This checkered policy is doubtless rooted in cannabis’ euphoric effect, clumsily described as “recreational.” Marijuana’s gravitas gradually emerged as it was next reported to kill cancer cells, help epileptics recover from seizures, maintain steady blood pressure, and fight a number of neurological ills, mostly in older people. Science also found a way to remove the “euphoria factor” from medical marijuana.

Criminalizing instead of studying and regulating cannabis sativa’s benefits has been a negative reflex all along. It has allowed crime syndicates to make millions with protection rackets and blackmail from the drug trade worldwide. Successive headline scandals like the Philippine police in cahoots with drug lords making millions on the manufactured drug metamphetamine aka shabu is only one more example of this evil template. (READ: Best practices: How other countries dealt with drug problems)

On the other hand

Possible blessings to human health and added years to life with medical marijuana parallel a possible economic boon if government policy and public opinion on marijuana were reversed. Today the costs of the government’s war against its production and sale in the Philippines are a dramatic gauge of possible benefits-become-a-curse, thanks to ignorance, prejudice and greed.

In contrast, a recent marijuana industry report by Grand View Research, Incorporated in the United States says: “Growing adoption of cannabis as a pharmaceutical product for treating severe medical conditions, such as cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, and other neurological conditions is anticipated to drive forthcoming years…. Increasing need for pain management therapies and growing disease burden of chronic pain among elders is also expected to boost demand.” 

Talk of big money. “The US legal cannabis market valued at USD 11.9 billion in 2018 is expected to grow 24.1% from 2019 to 2025. The global legal marijuana market size is expected to reach USD 66.3 billion by the end of 2025…. It is anticipated to expand at 23.9% during the forecast period,” Grand View Research speculates. 

Grand View also projects increasing legalization and use of marijuana in medical as well as “recreational” applications with everyone going at their own pace. Stringent regulations for cultivation and sale may limit overall growth for the global market in Europe, but “promising markets for cannabis” are seen in Australia, the UK, Germany, Poland, Colombia, Uruguay, and Israel. 

Thailand is creating its legal structure for cannabis, and will soon allow its citizens to grow cannabis at home to sell to the government. Countries like South Africa and New Zealand are discussing legalization and may emerge as viable markets for medicinal marijuana in the forthcoming years, Grand View adds.

As for the Philippines, clandestine marijuana harvests worth millions of pesos have been burned every year for the past 4 decades – or so the police and media would have the public believe. But the suspicion is always there that some of it was burned for publicity while the rest of a perfectly good marijuana harvest went to line law enforcers’ pockets instead.  

Significant indeed is the Philippine congressional majority passing a bill on the legalization of medical marijuana on third and final reading last January 2019 – 6 months before the US House of Representatives passed its own marijuana legalization bill in July 2019. 

Isabela representative Rodito Albano, author of House Bill 6517, offers hope in its stated purpose and very name: “The Philippine Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act that seeks to provide compassionate right of access to medical cannabis and expanding research into its medicinal properties.” 

Albano observes that medical marijuana has been used to alleviate pain in people suffering from cancer or seizures, and to bring back the appetite of people suffering from HIV/AIDS. These are the people he wishes to help. “It’s expensive – about a thousand dollars. It’s not affordable. It’s not accessible. That’s why we’re making this law.  It would allow the government to grow and research marijuana’s medicinal properties under very strict regulations.” 

Not for a minute has the congressman forgotten marijuana’s history in the Philippines. “Recreational use, growing, or possession of the marijuana plant would still be banned under the proposed measure,” he says.

The next step will be for the Senate to pass its own version of the bill and for the two chambers to meet in a bicameral conference committee to ratify the legislation. 

The rest of the world is moving on with the challenge of cannabis sativa. Now is a good time for Filipinos to finally arrive at a sound collective understanding of marijuana as a gift from the plant world. (READ: Why the Catholic Church OKs marijuana for the terminally ill)  

Doctors on both sides of the Pacific have opposed medical cannabis, saying its efficacy has yet to be confirmed.  This is true in some cases, just as it is false in some cases with epileptics and cancer patients healed. In short, there is enough evidence on both sides to take our time on this. 

To add to marijuana’s surprises, the roguish President Duterte, whatever his reason, has expressed support for this bill in the midst of his war against illegal drugs. – Rappler.com

Sylvia L. Mayuga is a veteran feature writer and columnist in Manila, with 3 National Book Awards to her name.