Press Release
June 8, 2014

Sotto slams backdoor move to legalize marijuana, warns national disaster

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." said Senator Vicente Sotto III, as he slammed the backdoor attempt to legalize marijuana purportedly for medical purposes.

Instead of patients supposedly benefitting from its medical use, the biggest winners are the drug syndicates which are already making a killing from this illegal drug.

The senator warned that like an atomic bomb, it only takes one misstep of misuse, destroying everything within its destructive reach.

"The proposal to legalize marijuana is misleading, camouflaged under the term 'medical marijuana. You do not declare a nuclear bomb legal just because a small component of the bomb can be used to light up your house," Sotto said.

Legalizing marijuana, even under the guise of medical purposes, is like giving it a stamp of approval for anyone to abuse.

"If we legalize marijuana, we will inevitably promote its use especially among the young. According to the data which we have obtained from the Dangerous Drugs Board, marijuana has consistently been the second most commonly abused substance for the past several years next to shabu," Sotto, who was also the former chairman of the Dangerous Drug Board, said.

A Bill has been filed in Congress seeking to legalize marijuana use for medical purposes, citing supposed studies abroad of its beneficial effects.

The Bill seeks to create a regulatory body under the Department of Health that will oversee the use of the cannabis for medical purposes.

The move is gaining traction among lawmakers who are in favor of marijuana use for treatment of debilitating diseases.

But Sotto sees a far greater societal damage is marijuana is allowed even under the guise of medical use. "This is a big business for drug traffickers and if we legalize marijuana this will become a bigger business for them," Sotto added.

Warning of a national disaster, Sotto said the immediate victims are the impressionable youth who may find that smoking pot is just as acceptable.

"If your child is using marijuana, will you encourage him of its continued use, or will you ask him to stop from using it? We will be sending a wrong message to the youth if we legalize marijuana," he said.

According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy of the United States of America, Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient of marijuana, primarily affect the cannabinoid receptors in humans.

Many of these receptors are found in the parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thought, concentration, sensory and time perception and coordinated movement. Numerous studies show that THC's negative effects are the following:

Short-term memory problems, Distorted perception (sounds, sights, time, touch), hallucinations and delusions occur, reduced blood pressure, long term uses leads to addiction, sleeplessness, bad temper, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, CHRONIC use leads to mental illness, vulnerability, and exposure to violence, also causes respiratory problems, and affects brain development.

Under Republic Act 9165, also known as the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, marijuana is classified as a dangerous drug. Its possession and use is punishable from 12 years to life imprisonment, depending on the quantity.

More importantly, the Philippines is a signatory to the United Nation's Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs which classified marijuana as a dangerous drug, particularly the United Nation's Commission on Narcotic Drugs (UN-CND) Schedule IV.

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