Smoking is banned in public places. Scary graphic illustrations on the ill effects of smoking are required on cigarette packs. The government is waging a bloody war on illegal drugs.
So Buhay Party-List Rep. Lito Atienza asks—why is Congress pushing hard for legalizing the use of marijuana? Sponsors of the House bill claim marijuana has medicinal benefits. But there is no study by the World Health Organization saying marijuana has medicinal value.
Atienza feels strongly about the controversial bill that he’s making the rounds of TV talks shows and mainstream media to sound the alarm bells about the danger of making marijuana easily accessible. He cannot understand why Congress is getting involved with issues concerning the health of the people which is best left to medical authorities. But then he also mentioned the current controversy over the government’s P3.5-billion purchase of the dengue vaccine whose efficacy is questionable. Atienza said it is turning out that the Dengvaxia drug is worse than the cure for which it was intended.
“This is a case wherein an ounce of prevention is NOT worth a pound of cure,” said Atienza paraphrasing the old maxim.
“Now, our congressmen are also pushing for the legalization of marijuana for medical benefits without any scientific study supporting their claim,” said Atienza, adding legislators should focus on the enactment of priority bills instead of intruding into matters that are best left to the medical profession.
He pointed out there are more pressing issues lawmakers can concentrate on—the monstrous traffic problem in the metropolis, unemployment, runaway crime, housing and alleviating the plight of the poor.
Atienza called on President Rodrigo Duterte to tell Congress to desist from pushing for the legalization of marijuana because the House bill is diametrically against the President’s anti-illegal drug campaign. Allowing marijuana on the false premise it has medicinal benefits is opening the floodgates to another form of addiction, said Atienza.
The legalization of marijuana is being pushed by certain congressmen headed by Isabela Rep. Rodito Albano who has not shown any authoritative medical study supporting his proposal.
The Buhay Party-List representative warned that making marijuana legal would make young people , including teenage girls, to switch from cigarette to the even more addictive stuff. Tobacco growers can also find planting marijuana more lucrative than their original crop for cigarettes. The Ilocos region, including Albano’s province of Isabela, are known as tobacco leaf growers. Why is Albano wittingly or unwittingly killing his own people’s main livelihood? Strange.
In the Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing last Monday, it was learned that the French firm Sanofi Pasteur was fully paid the P3.5 billion by the Aquino administration without his health officials undertaking due diligence. Sanofi did not disclose the Dengvaxia vaccine’s adverse side effect.
The dengue vaccine anomaly could be another case of criminal negligence against Noynoy Aquino, former Budget Secretary Butch Abad and former Health Secretary Janette Garin. At the Senate hearing, Garin insisted there was nothing irregular about the Dengvaxia deal even if it was signed during an election year. Hmm. This has the familiar ring of the scandalous scam pulled by former Metro Rail Transit manager Al Vitangcol who has been criminally charged before the Office of the Ombudsman for contracting a little-known Pangasinan company without any experience in train maintenance and repair.