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History of cannabis in the Philippines

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A herbarium sheet with one pressed, branching cannabis stem bearing narrow serrated leaflets, two handwritten paper labels at the lower left and a printed museum label with a stamp at the lower right.
Barthe 1 (s.d.), a sheet of cannabis in the Paris herbarium catalogued as collected in the Philippines by J. Barthe, with a Spanish label recording the plant as grown in gardens.

The history of cannabis in the Philippines covers the plant's place in the colonial sources of the archipelago, its prohibition in 1953 and the illicit cultivation, eradication campaigns and medical-cannabis legislation that followed. In Spanish-era dictionaries and floras the Spanish word cáñamo (hemp) served as a European point of comparison for abacá and other local cordage fibres,[1][2] while colonial officials promoted the sowing of hemp and flax seed in the 1760s and 1770s.[3][4] Under American rule cannabis appeared in law as an ingredient that medicine labels had to declare, while the drug laws prohibited opium, cocaine and eucaine.[5][6]

In June 1953 the Congress of the Philippines made "Indian hemp (marihuana)" a prohibited drug and declared its cultivation prohibited as national policy.[7][8] The sociologist Ricardo M. Zarco dated the illegal arrival of marijuana for smoking to 1954 or 1955.[9] By 1972 plantations had been reported around Manila and on several other islands.[10] The Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972 made cultivation punishable by up to life imprisonment. Later decrees and laws extended the death penalty to sale, importation and, from 1993, cultivation.[11][12][13][14] From the late 1980s United States government reports described cultivation in the uplands of northern Luzon, the central Visayas and Mindanao, concentrated by 2009 in the Cordillera.[15][16][17]

Since 2002 cannabis has been governed by the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, under which planting it carries life imprisonment and plantations are destroyed by hand.[18][19] The Dangerous Drugs Board has funded alternative-development programmes in growing areas since 2008.[20] The police campaign launched under President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016 counted marijuana cultivators among its targets.[21] Products containing cannabidiol were moved to Schedule 4 of the Philippine schedule of dangerous drugs in 2020, so that licensed neurologists could prescribe them. Bills to allow medical cannabis passed the House of Representatives in 2019 and 2024 without completing passage in the Senate.[22][23][24]

Cáñamo in Spanish colonial sources (to 1898)

Long pale fibres hanging from a wooden pole to the ground, in front of green undergrowth.
Abacá (Musa textilis) fibre drying in the sun near Bais City in 2015: the "Manila hemp" of world trade.

Spanish missionaries' dictionaries used cáñamo, the Spanish word for hemp, to gloss the cordage fibres of the islands. The Jesuits Juan de Noceda and Pedro de Sanlúcar glossed the Tagalog abacá as "Cañamo, de que se haze mecate" (hemp, from which rope is made) and anabo as "Cañamo silvestre" (wild hemp) in 1754.[1] An Ilocano vocabulary of 1849 described abacá as a kind of plantain "cuyo tronco hace las veces del cáñamo" (whose trunk does the work of hemp), and compared the retting of local cordage plants to that of hemp and flax "en Europa".[25] The fibre known in world trade as Manila hemp is abacá, Musa textilis; a Bureau of Agriculture bulletin of 1910 called the name "misleading as, properly speaking, hemp is the fiber produced by the plant Cannabis sativa".[26]

The Augustinian Manuel Blanco used the same comparison in his Flora de Filipinas. He judged abacá, though strong, very inferior to flax and cáñamo in strength, lustre and feel.[2] He described a fibre plant, Napaea scabra, as reputed at Manila to resemble cáñamo, and suggested that its true Tagalog name might be anabó; the Latin text of the 1878 edition states that at Manila it was held to be very like Cannabis sativa, its fibres being excellent for ropes.[27] The American botanist Elmer Drew Merrill identified Blanco's plant as a species of Malachra.[28] When the physician Trinidad Hermenegildo Pardo de Tavera's Plantas medicinales de Filipinas was translated into English in 1901, the translator, who added English names where he could, gave the Visayan anabo, a species of Abroma, the name "Perennial Indian Hemp".[29]

The Spanish ships of the Philippines were rigged mainly with European hemp cordage, made in Spain or bought from foreign merchants, with occasional lots of Chilean cordage arriving through Acapulco, according to the historian Manuel Díaz Ordóñez.[30] Hemp goods unloaded from the transatlantic fleets at Veracruz were carried overland to Acapulco for the Manila galleons and the warships at Cavite.[31] In a memorial of 1765 the royal fiscal Francisco Leandro de Viana proposed growing hemp and flax in the islands and reported that in the province of Cagayan "the seed of both these plants has been sown, and is yielding very well"; in the next paragraph he described abacá as a separate cordage fibre.[3]

A royal order of 12 January 1777 directed the Crown's subjects in the Indies to take up hemp and flax: the viceroy of Peru acknowledged that October an order "para que los indios y demás castas se apliquen a la siembra y cultivo del cáñamo y lino" (that the Indians and other castes apply themselves to the sowing and cultivation of hemp and flax),[32] and the Secretariat of State for the Indies handled files on promoting flax and hemp from 1777 to 1786 for Louisiana, Caracas, Cuba, New Spain and Santa Fe.[33] Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, librarian of the Philippine Library, and the editors of The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898 both record a decree of that date ordering the "Indians" of the Philippines to cultivate flax and hemp.[34][35] José Basco y Vargas, the governor who arrived in Manila in July 1778, offered rewards in his "general economic plan" to those who established manufactures of hemp, flax and cotton fabrics.[35] He reported to José de Gálvez, the secretary of the Indies, on the state of the flax and hemp sowings, which he had entrusted to a naval chaplain, Fernando Avilés,[4] and told him in May 1779 that he had asked the viceroy of New Spain for flax and hemp seed.[36] A royal order of 24 September 1779 approved the sowings and Basco's retention of Avilés to direct the cultivation. It also told the viceroy of New Spain to send the seed in glass jars on the ship's deck so that it would arrive fit to sow.[4] In New Spain the Crown had begun experiments in hemp cultivation near Mexico City in 1775.[31]

A sheet of cannabis in the herbarium of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris, Barthe 1 (s.d.), is catalogued as collected in the Philippines by J. Barthe; its catalogue entry gives no date. Of its two handwritten Spanish labels, the upper reads "Cultiva en huertas" or "Cultivo en huertas" (grown in gardens), and the lower is headed by a word in parentheses that reads "Ganja".[37] The Harvard University Herbaria's index of botanists lists a collector "Barthe (J.?)", with the note "Voyage Sybille", as collecting in the Philippines in 1857.[38] The Paris herbarium holds a syntype of the ginger Globba barthei collected by "Barthe, J." at Manila in that year.[39]

Pharmacy and the opium laws (1898–1953)

Under Spain opium had been a state monopoly from 1844, farmed out at public auction to contractors who supplied the Chinese population, while the governing decrees forbade "indios o mestizos" to smoke it.[40] The American military government ended the system, taxed opium sales and closed the public smoking dens.[40] A committee appointed by the Philippine Commission, whose members were Edward C. Carter, Charles Henry Brent and José Albert, reported in June 1904. It recommended that opium be made a strict government monopoly at once and that three years later none be imported except by the government for medical purposes.[41] Act No. 1461 of 1906 restricted the sale of opium until 1 March 1908 and provided for registering Chinese persons as confirmed users;[42] Act No. 1761 of 1907, "The Opium Act", restricted its sale and use pending prohibition and made the unauthorised possession of opium, cocaine or alpha or beta eucaine an offence.[43] Opium became a prohibited substance on 1 March 1908.[40] The Internal Revenue Law of 1914 defined prohibited drugs as "opium, cocaine, alpha, and beta eucaine, their derivatives, and all preparations made from them",[6] and the Revised Penal Code of 1930 and the National Internal Revenue Code of 1939 kept the same list.[44][45] Writing of the late 1950s, the sociologist Ricardo M. Zarco judged the code's opium articles inadequate because they "excluded marijuana or Indian hemp".[9]

The Philippine Commission's Food and Drugs Act of 1907 counted a medicine as misbranded if its label failed to state the quantity of "cannabis indica" it contained.[5] A Bureau of Agriculture veterinarian tried an injected extract of "Cannabis americana" as an anaesthetic for animals in 1914, without results that would justify its general use.[46] The bureau's rinderpest trials of 1917 included "Cannabis Indica", which showed no curative value.[47] The Philippine Journal of Science described the trawl nets of Japanese fishermen working in Philippine waters in 1930 as made "from hemp, cannabio sativa" [sic].[48] In 1941 the journal reviewed Robert P. Walton's Marihuana, a book on a drug that "in recent years has become a deadly menace in the United States".[49]

Juan Gamella and Elisa Martín regard the American administration's encounter with opiate use in its first colony as decisive in the creation of international narcotics control. They name Brent, who presided over the first international opium commission at Shanghai in 1909, as the most influential figure in Philippine opium legislation.[40] Preparing for the conference at The Hague, the Italian government asked in February 1910 that it also consider "the Indian hemp and hashish trade".[50] The United States, then the sovereign power in the Philippines, replied that it was "in hearty accord", warning that "as the suppression of excessive opium production proceeds, there is great danger that the production and trade in Indian hemp will replace it".[51] Brent sat at The Hague as a United States delegate "of the Philippine Islands";[52] the conference's final protocol recommended only that Indian hemp be studied "from the statistical and scientific standpoint".[53] Cannabis came under international control through the Geneva convention of 1925, after a call by the delegation of Egypt; the United States withdrew from that conference and did not sign the convention.[54] A United Nations survey of the illicit traffic, published in 1951, described the traffic in the Philippines as "largely confined to prepared opium" but named Indian hemp (marihuana) among the other drugs seized there. It reported that Indian hemp had been smuggled into the country from the United States.[55]

Prohibition and the first plantations (1953–1972)

In June 1953 Republic Act No. 887 added "Indian hemp (marihuana)" to the prohibited drugs of the National Internal Revenue Code.[7] The Narcotic Drugs Law (Republic Act No. 953), approved the next day, required everyone who produced, imported, sold or gave away opium or marihuana to register with the Collector of Internal Revenue and pay fixed taxes, and declared: "As a national policy the cultivation of marihuana (indian hemp) and opium poppy is hereby declared prohibited."[8] Republic Act No. 2060 of 13 June 1958 added Indian hemp to the prohibited drugs of the Revised Penal Code, defining it as "otherwise known as marihuana, cannabis Americana, hashish, bhang, guaza, churrus, and ganjah".[56] The Philippines signed the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs at New York on 30 March 1961, the day it was concluded. It ratified the convention on 2 October 1967.[57]

Zarco, drawing on Manila newspapers of January and February 1959, dated the illegal entry of marijuana to 1954 or 1955. In his account American merchant marine sailors gave seeds to residents of Pasay and Makati, who grew the plants in flower pots and dried the flowering tops and leaves, mixed them with tobacco and rolled them into cigarettes for sale to "Manila's addicts and transients". Philippine Constabulary raiders questioned arrested growers on 8 January 1959. Farmers in Masbate, Cebu and Negros Oriental were also found growing the plant.[9] Writing in the Bulletin on Narcotics in 1965, Joel Fort estimated that the Philippines had 5,000 users of narcotics, most of them smoking opium or injecting morphine, and noted "some use of cannabis".[58] When the National Bureau of Investigation opened the country's first treatment and rehabilitation centre in 1965, there were 930 drug dependants, according to Aurora Cudal: 615 abused heroin and 13 marijuana.[59]

On 10 February 1971 agents of the bureau's narcotics division raided a plantation of about 100 marijuana plants at Malagasang in Imus, Cavite. According to the Supreme Court's decision in the case, the plantation was protected by the bandit Leonardo Manecio, known as Nardong Putik, who shared its marijuana sales with the owner; his men captured two of the agents and killed them.[60] Tony Cayado's film Nardong Putik (1972) was based on his case.[61] Cesarea Goduco-Auglar, clinical director of the National Mental Hospital, wrote in the Bulletin on Narcotics in 1972 that the main drug of abuse among students "seems to be marijuana" and that ten to twenty students and young people came to the attention of the bureau's narcotics division every day for marijuana. She reported indications that local dealers had begun growing their own supplies to meet student demand, with plantations found around Manila, in Caloocan, Quezon City, Las Piñas, Rizal and Cavite. There appeared also to be plantations on Negros, in the Bicol Region, in Mindanao and in Central Luzon.[10] Michael Tan attributed the increase in reported drug problems among young Filipinos in the late 1960s in part to the influence of the western "hippie" culture and to the country's role as a transhipment point for a drug trade serving United States servicemen on rest and recreation from the Vietnam War.[62]

The Dangerous Drugs Act and the growth of cultivation (1972–2002)

Main article: Cannabis cultivation in the Philippines


The Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972 (Republic Act No. 6425) was approved on 30 March 1972. It classed "Indian hemp and its derivatives" as a prohibited drug, defined marijuana as "every kind and class of the plant cannabis sativa L. from which the resin has not been extracted" and created the Dangerous Drugs Board. Possessing or using Indian hemp carried six months and one day to six years' imprisonment, a lighter penalty than that for other prohibited drugs. Cultivation carried 14 years and one day to life imprisonment. The land was to be confiscated unless its owner proved ignorance of the crop despite due diligence. Selling a prohibited drug carried 12 years and one day to 20 years; the act reserved life imprisonment to death for manufacture and for a seller whose drug was "the proximate cause of the death of a victim".[11]

The Constabulary Anti-Narcotics Unit was formed in the same year, according to Gideon Lasco and Vincen Gregory Yu "in large part" with United States intervention "to crack down on American soldiers in the Philippines who were covertly participating in the drug trade".[61] Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law on 21 September 1972.[61] Cudal wrote in 1976 that the illegal traffic in and use of opiates had declined markedly since then, and that a school survey in five cities had found marijuana and "exempt drug preparations" to be the drugs commonly abused.[59] The United States embassy in Manila reported in February 1973 that "Marijuana is cultivated throughout the Philippines but only for domestic consumption" and that it was the most widely abused drug, mostly among high-school and college students and unemployed young people.[63] In a 1977 survey of 7,072 high-school students in Manila 4.5 percent had tried cannabis; in a survey of students in five cities that year 15 percent had used it.[64] A study mission of the United States House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control reported in 1978 that "Some cannabis is grown, but it is for local use"; the government was working to eradicate it, but reports showed cultivation "continuing to spread". The mission found "widespread abuse of marihuana and alcohol" among American servicemen at Subic Bay and Clark Air Base.[65]

In 1980 a presidential decree stated that the volume of marijuana seized "appears to confirm the observation that the illegal growing, cultivation and production of marijuana plants remain unchecked". It blamed the act's failure to penalise the possession of seeds and extended the definition of marijuana to them.[66] Decrees of the same year made the sale and the importation of any prohibited drug punishable by life imprisonment to death.[12][13] Batas Pambansa Blg. 179 of 1982 brought "any parts or portions of the plant" within the definition, doubled the penalty for possessing marijuana and extended the cultivation offence to planting "on any medium", with the maximum penalty where the land belonged to the public domain.[67]

Chavalit Yodmani wrote in 1983 that 90 percent of the country's illicit cannabis cultivation lay in northern Luzon.[68] Emmanuel Santos studied a group of ten marijuana users in a town outside Metro Manila from December 1983 to March 1984. A former middleman told him that most of the supply came from the northern and southern provinces of Luzon. The group described a half kilo of "sensimilla" brought from the north as a time of plenty (tag-yaman).[69]

The United States Department of State's narcotics report of February 1986 recorded cultivation in 42 of the country's 73 provinces and in Metro Manila, with the mountains of northern Luzon the principal source and others in Cebu and Sulu. Government figures gave 15,440,185 plants and seedlings seized between 1982 and September 1985. The eradication programme set 1994 as its target for ending production. The report found "a growing awareness among farmers in northern Luzon that marijuana cultivation is profitable", some of whom had moved from vegetables to the crop. It named marijuana the most commonly abused drug in the country.[70] In August 1986 a Philippine Constabulary checkpoint at Tublay, on the vegetable road from Buguias to Baguio, stopped vehicles some of whose passengers were carrying marijuana.[71] Adrian Albano writes that before the road reached Tinoc in Ifugao, linked to the provincial road system only in the early 1990s, some of its farmers grew marijuana as "a much lighter but more valuable (though illegal) agricultural commodity".[72]

The State Department's report of March 1988 described cannabis cultivation as "widespread throughout the islands of the Philippines" but "not considered to be a significant cash or subsidiary crop". It reported the government's allegation that communist and Muslim insurgents were responsible for most cultivation and distribution. It also recorded an eradication programme that had destroyed over ten million plants.[73] The United States National Narcotics Intelligence Consumers Committee placed the Philippines with Laos as the next largest cultivators and suppliers of cannabis after Thailand in its report for 1987. Its report for 1989 said that cultivation "remains high and the export of marijuana to other countries continues".[74][75] The State Department's report of March 1990 named northern Luzon and the central Visayas as the centres of cultivation. It wrote that "hill tribes in northern Luzon have become aware of the profitability of cultivating cannabis", so that some farmers had moved from vegetables and rice to the crop. It took a record seizure of two tons of Philippine marijuana in California in October 1989 to indicate a potential for larger exports.[15] The report of 2007 stated that the communist New People's Army had "reportedly" been involved in large-scale cultivation in the Cordillera since the mid-1980s.[76]

Under the death-penalty law of December 1993 (Republic Act No. 7659), cultivation and the possession of 750 grams or more of marijuana carried reclusion perpetua to death.[14] In 1993 the narcotics intelligence committee described the country as "a major source of marijuana for Australian, Japanese, and U.S. consumers" and reported raids in Benguet and Davao del Sur that destroyed over 200 tonnes of marijuana.[77] The State Department's report for 1996 called the Philippines "a major producer and exporter of marijuana due to official corruption, ineffective enforcement, and ideal growing conditions"; most of the crop, it said, was consumed at home or exported to Japan and Australia.[78] Its report for 1997 said that the eradication programme received "periodic assistance from the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service".[79]

The Dangerous Drugs Board adopted alternative development as one of five pillars of drug control in 1998.[80] The State Department reported that year that an integrated rural development programme "to eliminate marijuana" had not yet been funded and that eradication had lost ground in 1998 and 1999 for lack of money.[81][82] Growers, the 1999 report said, worked in areas "inaccessible by vehicles, and controlled by rebel groups".[82] In 2000 a plantation of about ten hectares on public land at Mount Churyon in Sadanga, Mountain Province, was the subject of a cultivation charge that reached the Supreme Court.[83]

The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act (since 2002)

Main articles: Cannabis law in the Philippines and Eradication campaigns in the Philippines

The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 (Republic Act No. 9165), approved on 7 June 2002, repealed the 1972 act. It made the planting or cultivation of marijuana "regardless of quantity" punishable by life imprisonment to death, provided for the land to be escheated to the state and created the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency as "the implementing arm of the Board", charged with eradication programmes.[18] After the death penalty was prohibited in 2006, life imprisonment and a fine became the penalty for the gravest drug offences.[84][85]

Eradication and alternative development

Units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines joined eradication operations in 2002, the year in which the authorities counted 98 plantation sites in nine regions.[86] The State Department wrote in 2010 that eradication "is always carried out manually, rather than by aerial application of chemicals".[19] In 2007 it had reported that the agencies lacked fuel for the helicopters needed to reach sites in the mountains of Luzon and Mindanao.[76] Launching her own drug war in 2003, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo gave her subordinates three months to arrest 62 drug lords and dismantle fifty marijuana plantations, according to Gideon Lasco.[87] In May 2005 police destroyed 1.085 million fully grown plants and 316,600 seedlings on an 11.5-hectare plantation in Tinoc.[88]

By the State Department's report of 2009, 70 percent of the country's marijuana was grown in the Cordillera and Cebu was the second largest area of cultivation.[17] Its report of 2011 said that cultivation had been carried out openly for 40 years in Santol, La Union, which was "often considered the largest source of marijuana in the Philippines". Citing the Dangerous Drugs Board and local officials, it described traffickers contracting "indigenous groups in remote mountainous locations in Luzon and Mindanao" to grow the crop.[89] The Dangerous Drugs Board funded seven alternative-development programmes from 2008: silk production in Kapangan, Kibungan and Bakun in Benguet; coffee, citrus and temperate vegetables in Tinglayan, Kalinga; abacá and rainforestation farming in Balamban, Cebu and San Fernando, Bukidnon; and an integrated agricultural programme in Santol.[20] The State Department judged their success "limited due to lack of funds, the remoteness of the locations, and resultant poor access to markets".[89] A vice-chair of the board said in 2010 that Benguet had been declared marijuana-free the year before.[90]

In August 2016 OPLAN Greenchill eradicated 15 sites covering 48 hectares in Tinglayan, an operation the board described as the largest of the year.[20] The Department of Agriculture offered production loans for turning marijuana plantations into coffee farms in Tinglayan in 2017, and gave 10,000 Arabica seedlings to the Loccong Gardeners Association.[91] In 2020 the Cordillera director of the drug enforcement agency said that "Marijuana is done like high-value agriculture".[92] The regional police director described the region as "the majority of the source of marijuana".[93] In 2022 the regional peace and order and development councils endorsed a Tinglayan plan to move farmers to other crops. Cordillera police described growers on Mount Chumanchil in 2024 harvesting one side of the mountain and burning the other to plant it.[94] Between January and April 2026 the Benguet police reported more than 1.1 million fully grown plants eradicated in Kibungan alone. The Dangerous Drugs Board asked regional councils that year to institutionalise eradication there and to fund roads, irrigation and other works that would make Kibungan, Kapangan and Bakun alternative-development sites.[95][96]

The drug war

On 1 July 2016, the day after Duterte took office, the chief of the Philippine National Police signed the circular that launched the campaign known as Operation Double Barrel. As quoted by Amnesty International, it counted any "marijuana cultivator" among the "drug personalities" it targeted.[21] The Dangerous Drugs Board listed "marijuana cultivators and plantations" among the conditions that made a barangay drug-affected.[97] Lasco and Yu describe a "methamphetamine exceptionalism" in the campaign, resting on the view that shabu is "especially dangerous as opposed to other drugs".[98] Lasco writes that cannabis "has been viewed less negatively in the Philippines", with Duterte even "joking" about using it at the height of the campaign.[87]

The drug enforcement agency said in 2022 that marijuana had overtaken methamphetamine as the most abused illegal drug and had made up 83 percent of its seizures in 2021.[99] After Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in 2022 the Department of the Interior and Local Government launched the BIDA programme (Buhay Ingatan, Droga'y Ayawan), focused on demand reduction and rehabilitation.[100] In 2024 Marcos described a "bloodless war on dangerous drugs".[101] Lasco notes that the administration has taken no concrete steps to repeal the 2002 act; Arroyo, by then a member of the House of Representatives, had filed a bill to legalise medical marijuana in 2023.[87]

Medical cannabis

From 1992 an order of the Department of Health allowed patients with AIDS, cancer or other life-threatening conditions to obtain compassionate special permits for unregistered medicines, a route later used for cannabis oil.[102] A medical-cannabis bill, the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Act (House Bill 4477), was filed by Representative Rodolfo Albano III of Isabela on 26 May 2014 and referred to the House Committee on Health.[103][104] In May 2016 Duterte told reporters "Medical marijuana, yes, because it is really an ingredient of modern medicine now".[105] In the next Congress the Philippine Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act (House Bill 6517) passed the House on third reading on 29 January 2019 by 163 votes to five with three abstentions and was referred to Senate committees on 4 February.[23] The Senate President, Vicente Sotto III, had argued in December 2018 that the 2002 act already allowed medical use.[106] In March 2019 Duterte told a campaign rally in Victorias City, Negros Occidental, that legalisation might lead to more marijuana plantations: "Not in my time. Some other president maybe."[107]

The Dangerous Drugs Board approved in principle the use of cannabidiol for severe epilepsy in February 2020. Its chairman said that the use, cultivation and production of marijuana remained illegal.[108][109] Its Board Regulation No. 3 of September 2020 moved cannabidiol products with no more than 0.1 percent tetrahydrocannabinol from Schedules 1 and 2 of the Philippine schedule to Schedule 4.[22] When the Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted in December 2020 to remove cannabis from Schedule IV of the Single Convention, the Philippines attended as an observer and joined a statement delivered by the Russian Federation on behalf of 29 states.[110]

In the 19th Congress the House approved the Access to Medical Cannabis Act (House Bill 10439), which consolidated ten bills including one to remove cannabis from the list of dangerous drugs, on third reading on 30 July 2024 by 177 votes to nine with nine abstentions.[111][112] The Philippine Medical Association opposed it. The Department of Health said that it did not support the cultivation of cannabis or the manufacture of cannabis products.[113][114] The Senate's Cannabis Medicalization Act (Senate Bill 2573), sponsored by Senator Robinhood Padilla, ended the Congress pending second reading.[24][115] A new Department of Health order on compassionate special permits took effect on 10 December 2025.[116] On 24 February 2026 the House committees on dangerous drugs and on health approved a consolidated bill that would keep cannabis on the list of dangerous drugs while allowing pharmaceutical forms under a Medical Cannabis Office.[117]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Noceda, J. de; Sanlúcar, P. de (1754). Vocabulario de la lengua tagala, trabaxado por varios sugetos doctos, y graves, y ultimamente añadido, corregido, y coordinado (PDF) (in español). Manila: Imprenta de la Compañía de Jesús. pp. 1, 18. Retrieved 3 October 2026 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Blanco, M. (1837). Flora de Filipinas, según el sistema sexual de Linneo (in español). Manila: Imprenta de Sto. Thomas. pp. 246–250.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Viana, F.L. de (1907). "Memorial of 1765". In Blair, E.H.; Robertson, J.A. (eds.). The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898. Vol. 48. Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company. p. 298. Retrieved 4 October 2026 – via Project Gutenberg.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Expediente sobre dirección de siembras de lino y cáñamo de Fernando Avilés". PARES: Portal de Archivos Españoles (in español). Ministerio de Cultura. Archivo General de Indias, FILIPINAS,690,N.3. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 An Act for Preventing the Manufacture, Sale, or Transportation of Adulterated or Misbranded or Poisonous or Deleterious Foods, Drugs, Medicines, and Liquors, and for Regulating Traffic Therein, and for Other Purposes(Act No. 1655), 18 May 1907, section 8.Philippine Islands.Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Internal Revenue Law of 1914(Act No. 2339), 27 February 1914, section 135.Philippine Islands.Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 An Act to Amend Sections Three Hundred and Thirty-Nine and Three Hundred and Fifty-Six of Commonwealth Act Numbered Four Hundred and Sixty-Six, Otherwise Known as the National Internal Revenue Code, as Amended(Republic Act No. 887), 19 June 1953.Philippines.Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Narcotic Drugs Law(Republic Act No. 953), 20 June 1953, section 15.Philippines.Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Zarco, R.M. (1995). "A short history of narcotic drug addiction in the Philippines, 1521–1959" (PDF). Philippine Sociological Review. 43 (1–4): 1–15. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Goduco-Auglar, C. (1972). "A note on drug abuse in the Philippines". Bulletin on Narcotics (2). United Nations: 43–44. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 The Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972(Republic Act No. 6425), 30 March 1972.Philippines.Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Amending Further Section 4 of Republic Act No. 6425, as Amended, Otherwise Known as the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972(Presidential Decree No. 1675), 17 February 1980.Philippines.Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Amending Certain Sections of Republic Act No. 6425, as Amended, Otherwise Known as the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972 and for Other Purposes(Presidential Decree No. 1683), 14 March 1980.Philippines.Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 An Act to Impose the Death Penalty on Certain Heinous Crimes, Amending for That Purpose the Revised Penal Code, as Amended, Other Special Penal Laws, and for Other Purposes(Republic Act No. 7659), 13 December 1993, sections 13 and 17.Philippines.Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Bureau of International Narcotics Matters (March 1990). International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (PDF) (Report). United States Department of State. pp. 314–317. Retrieved 3 October 2026 – via National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
  16. ↑ Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (March 2005). "Southeast Asia". International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (Report). United States Department of State. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (2009). "Country Reports: Moldova through Singapore". 2009 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) (Report). Vol. I. United States Department of State. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 An Act Instituting the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, Repealing Republic Act No. 6425, Otherwise Known as the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972, as Amended, Providing Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes(Republic Act No. 9165), 7 June 2002.Philippines.Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (2010). "Country Reports: Moldova through Singapore". 2010 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) (Report). Vol. I. United States Department of State. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Dangerous Drugs Board (2016). Dimaculangan, E.M.L. (ed.). Annual Report 2016 (PDF) (Report). Dangerous Drugs Board. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Amnesty International (2017). "If you are poor, you are killed": extrajudicial executions in the Philippines' "war on drugs" (PDF) (Report). London: Amnesty International. ASA 35/5517/2017. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Dangerous Drugs Board (24 September 2020). Board Regulation No. 3, Series of 2020: Placing Drug Products Containing Cannabidiol (CBD) with No More Than 0.1 Percent Tetrahydrocannabinol in Schedule 4 of the Philippine Schedule (PDF) (Report). Quezon City: Dangerous Drugs Board. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "House Bill No. 6517, 17th Congress of the Republic". Legislative Digital Resources. Senate of the Philippines, Legislative Reference Bureau. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 "Senate Bill No. 2573, 19th Congress". Legislative Digital Resources. Senate of the Philippines, Legislative Reference Bureau. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  25. ↑ Carro, A., ed. (1849). Vocabulario de la lengua ilocana (PDF) (in español). Manila: Establecimiento Tipográfico del Colegio de Santo Tomás. p. 1. Retrieved 3 October 2026 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  26. ↑ Edwards, H.T.; Saleeby, M.M. (1910). Abacá (Manila hemp) (PDF). Farmers' Bulletin No. 12 (revised edition). Manila: Bureau of Printing. p. 9. Retrieved 3 October 2026 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  27. ↑ Blanco, M. (1878). Flora de Filipinas (PDF) (in español). Vol. 2 (Gran edición ed.). Manila: Plana y Cª. pp. 345–346. Retrieved 3 October 2026 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  28. ↑ Merrill, E.D. (April 1905). A review of the identifications of the species described in Blanco's Flora de Filipinas (PDF). Bureau of Government Laboratories Publication No. 27. Manila: Bureau of Public Printing. p. 23. Retrieved 3 October 2026 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  29. ↑ Pardo de Tavera, T.H. (1901). The medicinal plants of the Philippines (PDF). Translated by Thomas, J.B. Jr. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Son & Co. p. 55. Retrieved 4 October 2026 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  30. ↑ Díaz Ordóñez, M. (2005). "El cáñamo y la Corona española en Ultramar: América y Filipinas (siglos XVI–XVII)". Revista de Historia Naval (in español). 23 (90): 56–57. Retrieved 4 October 2026 – via idUS, Universidad de Sevilla.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Díaz Ordóñez, M. (2019). "Las nuevas periferias americanas en la circulación de cáñamo y jarcia para la construcción naval militar española en el siglo XVIII". Magallánica: Revista de Historia Moderna (in español). 6 (11): 196. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  32. ↑ "Carta nº 210 de Manuel de Guirior, Virrey de Perú, a José de Gálvez, Secretario de Indias". PARES: Portal de Archivos Españoles (in español). Ministerio de Cultura. 20 October 1777. Archivo General de Indias, LIMA,656,N.46. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  33. ↑ "Fomento de lino y cáñamo". PARES: Portal de Archivos Españoles (in español). Ministerio de Cultura. Archivo General de Indias, INDIFERENTE,100. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  34. ↑ Artigas y Cuerva, M. (1922). "Bibliographical notes on Philippine agriculture, prefaced by a historical sketch" (PDF). The Philippine Agricultural Review. 15 (1): 5. Retrieved 3 October 2026 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Blair, E.H.; Robertson, J.A., eds. (1907). "Events in Filipinas, 1764–1800". The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898. Vol. 50. Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company. pp. 47–48, 75. Retrieved 4 October 2026 – via Project Gutenberg.
  36. ↑ "Carta de José Basco y Vargas sobre semillas de lino y cáñamo". PARES: Portal de Archivos Españoles (in español). Ministerio de Cultura. 20 May 1779. Archivo General de Indias, FILIPINAS,687,N.26. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  37. ↑ "Occurrence 731718299: Cannabis sativa L." GBIF. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  38. ↑ "Index of Botanists: Barthe (J.?)". Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  39. ↑ "Occurrence 439573851: Globba barthei Gagnep". GBIF. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 40.2 40.3 Gamella, J.F.; Martín, E. (1992). "Las rentas de Anfión: el monopolio español del opio en Filipinas (1844–1898) y su rechazo por la administración norteamericana". Revista de Indias (in español). 52 (194): 61–106. doi:10.3989/revindias.1992.i194.1180.
  41. ↑ United States Senate (1906). Use of opium and traffic therein: message from the President of the United States, transmitting the report of the committee appointed by the Philippine Commission to investigate the use of opium and the traffic therein (Report). 59th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Document No. 265. Washington: Government Printing Office. pp. 4, 53. Retrieved 4 October 2026 – via Wellcome Collection.
  42. ↑ An Act for the Purpose of Restricting the Sale and Suppressing the Evil Resulting from the Sale and Use of Opium until March First, Nineteen Hundred and Eight(Act No. 1461), 5 March 1906.Philippine Islands.Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  43. ↑ An Act Gradually to Restrict and Regulate the Sale and Use of Opium Pending the Ultimate Prohibition of the Importation of Opium into the Philippine Islands(Act No. 1761), 10 October 1907.Philippine Islands.Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  44. ↑ An Act Revising the Penal Code and Other Penal Laws(Act No. 3815), 8 December 1930, article 190.Philippine Islands.Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  45. ↑ National Internal Revenue Code(Commonwealth Act No. 466), 15 June 1939, section 339.Philippines.Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  46. ↑ Palmer, D.B. (May 1914). "A new method of producing anesthesia" (PDF). The Philippine Agricultural Review. 7 (5): 242. Retrieved 3 October 2026 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  47. ↑ Bureau of Agriculture (1919). "Seventeenth annual report of the Bureau of Agriculture" (PDF). The Philippine Agricultural Review. 12 (2): 43. Retrieved 3 October 2026 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  48. ↑ Montalban, H.R.; Martin, C. (August 1930). "Two Japanese fishing methods used by Japanese fishermen in Philippine waters" (PDF). The Philippine Journal of Science. 42 (4): 472. Retrieved 4 October 2026 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  49. ↑ A.O.C. (1941). "Review of Marihuana: America's New Drug Problem by Robert P. Walton" (PDF). The Philippine Journal of Science. 75: 343. Retrieved 4 October 2026 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  50. ↑ "Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 6, 1910, Document 272". Office of the Historian. United States Department of State. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  51. ↑ "Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 6, 1910, Document 278". Office of the Historian. United States Department of State. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  52. ↑ "Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 3, 1912, Document 307". Office of the Historian. United States Department of State. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  53. ↑ "Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 3, 1912, Document 305". Office of the Historian. United States Department of State. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  54. ↑ United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2008). A Century of International Drug Control (PDF) (Report). Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. pp. 50–55. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  55. ↑ "The illicit traffic in narcotics throughout the world". Bulletin on Narcotics (1). United Nations: 1–15. 1951. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  56. ↑ An Act Amending Article One Hundred and Ninety of the Revised Penal Code, so as to Include Marihuana and Similar Drugs Among the Prohibited Drugs(Republic Act No. 2060), 13 June 1958.Philippines.Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  57. ↑ "Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961". United Nations Treaty Collection. Chapter VI, 15. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  58. ↑ Fort, J. (1965). "Giver of delight or liberator of sin: drug use and "addiction" in Asia". Bulletin on Narcotics (3). United Nations: 1–11. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  59. ↑ 59.0 59.1 Cudal, A.S. (1976). "Educational programmes on the prevention and control of drug abuse in the Philippines". Bulletin on Narcotics (3). United Nations: 1–9. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  60. ↑ "People of the Philippines v. Jimenez, G.R. Nos. L-36613-14". Supreme Court of the Philippines. 24 July 1981. Retrieved 4 October 2026 – via The LawPhil Project.
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  62. ↑ Tan, M.L. (1995). "The construction of "drug abuse" in the Philippines: the case of cough preparations" (PDF). Philippine Sociological Review. 43 (1–4): 17–42. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  63. ↑ United States Embassy, Manila (6 February 1973). Updating of Narcotics Control Action Program (PDF) (Report). United States Department of State. Airgram A-28. Retrieved 4 October 2026 – via Department of State FOIA Virtual Reading Room.
  64. ↑ Suwanwela, C.; Poshyachinda, V. (1986). "Drug abuse in Asia". Bulletin on Narcotics (1). United Nations: 41–53. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  65. ↑ Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control (July 1978). Study Mission on International Controls of Narcotics Trafficking and Production, January 2–22, 1978 (PDF) (Report). Washington: United States House of Representatives. pp. 4, 32. SCNAC-95-2-3. Retrieved 4 October 2026 – via National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
  66. ↑ Amending Paragraph (i), Section 2 of Republic Act Numbered Sixty-Four Hundred and Twenty-Five, Otherwise Known as the "Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972", as Amended(Presidential Decree No. 1708), 8 August 1980.Philippines.Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  67. ↑ An Act Further Amending Certain Sections of Republic Act Numbered Sixty-Four Hundred and Twenty-Five, Otherwise Known as the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972, Appropriating Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes(Batas Pambansa No. 179), 2 March 1982.Philippines.Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  68. ↑ Yodmani, C. (1983). "The role of the Association of South-East Asian Nations in fighting illicit drug traffic". Bulletin on Narcotics (4). United Nations: 97–104. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  69. ↑ Santos, E.N. (1984). "Group formation, group cohesion, and marijuana use" (PDF). Philippine Sociological Review: 31–40. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  70. ↑ Bureau of International Narcotics Matters (1 February 1986). International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (PDF) (Report). Vol. I. United States Department of State. pp. 205–209. Retrieved 4 October 2026 – via National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
  71. ↑ "People of the Philippines v. Ballagan, G.R. No. 88278". Supreme Court of the Philippines. 23 August 1995. Retrieved 3 October 2026 – via The LawPhil Project.
  72. ↑ Albano, A. (2025). "From rice to vegetable terraces: agricultural transition and sustainability in western Ifugao, Philippines". Southeast Asian Studies. 14 (1): 37–65. doi:10.20495/seas.14.1_37.
  73. ↑ Bureau of International Narcotics Matters (1 March 1988). International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (PDF) (Report). United States Department of State. p. 41. Retrieved 3 October 2026 – via National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
  74. ↑ National Narcotics Intelligence Consumers Committee (April 1988). The Supply of Illicit Drugs to the United States: The NNICC Report 1987 (PDF) (Report). p. 21. Retrieved 3 October 2026 – via National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
  75. ↑ National Narcotics Intelligence Consumers Committee (June 1990). The NNICC Report 1989: The Supply of Illicit Drugs to the United States (PDF) (Report). p. 72. Retrieved 4 October 2026 – via National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
  76. ↑ 76.0 76.1 Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (March 2007). "Southeast Asia". International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (Report). United States Department of State. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  77. ↑ National Narcotics Intelligence Consumers Committee. The NNICC Report 1993: The Supply of Illicit Drugs to the United States (PDF) (Report). p. 67. Retrieved 3 October 2026 – via National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
  78. ↑ Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. "Southeast Asia". International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1996 (Report). United States Department of State. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  79. ↑ Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. "Southeast Asia and the Pacific, part 2". International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1997 (Report). United States Department of State. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  80. ↑ "DDB History". Dangerous Drugs Board. 26 August 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  81. ↑ Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. "Southeast Asia". International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, 1998 (Report). United States Department of State. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
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  83. ↑ "People of the Philippines v. Ricardo Alunday, G.R. No. 181546". Supreme Court of the Philippines. 3 September 2008. Retrieved 3 October 2026 – via The LawPhil Project.
  84. ↑ An Act Prohibiting the Imposition of Death Penalty in the Philippines(Republic Act No. 9346), 24 June 2006.Philippines.Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  85. ↑ "People of the Philippines v. Reyman Endaya y Laig, G.R. No. 205741". Supreme Court E-Library. Supreme Court of the Philippines. 23 July 2014. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
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  88. ↑ Dumlao, A. (23 May 2005). "CAR cops torch P220-M marijuana plants in Ifugao". Philstar.com. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
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  90. ↑ Ricalde, A.L. (28 January 2010). "Livelyhood projects set for marijuana farmers". SunStar. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  91. ↑ "Agri secretary initiates switch from marijuana to coffee farming". SunStar. 16 May 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  92. ↑ Dumlao, A. (9 August 2020). "PDEA: Raided plantations disprove marijuana grows naturally in Cordillera". Philstar.com. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  93. ↑ Llanes, J. (21 February 2020). "Aggressive illegal weed eradication in place". SunStar. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  94. ↑ Cabreza, V. (4 August 2024). "Cordillera cops eye 'survey' in drives vs marijuana plantations". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  95. ↑ Dangerous Drugs Board (2026). Board Resolution No. 6, Series of 2026: A Resolution Requesting the Cordillera Regional Peace and Order Council for Support for the Sustainability of Marijuana Eradication Efforts in the Municipalities of Kibungan, Kapangan and Bakun in the Province of Benguet (PDF) (Report). Dangerous Drugs Board. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  96. ↑ Dangerous Drugs Board (2026). Board Resolution No. 5, Series of 2026: A Resolution Requesting for the Support of the Regional Development Council Cordillera Administrative Region for the Infrastructure Requirements of the Municipalities of Kibungan, Kapangan, and Bakun as Alternative Development Sites Following Successful Marijuana Eradication Activities (PDF) (Report). Dangerous Drugs Board. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  97. ↑ Dangerous Drugs Board (2022). The Philippine Anti-Illegal Drugs Strategy 2018–2022 Term-End Report (PDF) (Report). Dangerous Drugs Board. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  98. ↑ Lasco, G.; Yu, V.G. (2021). ""Shabu is different": extrajudicial killings, death penalty, and "methamphetamine exceptionalism" in the Philippines". International Journal of Drug Policy. 92 103168. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103168.
  99. ↑ Cabalza, D. (26 March 2022). "PDEA: Pot, not meth, now 'dominant drug'". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  100. ↑ "DILG to launch BIDA program vs illegal drugs, calls on public to be "BIDA advocates"". Department of the Interior and Local Government, Region IV-A. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  101. ↑ Romero, A. (23 July 2024). "Marcos touts 'bloodless' drug war, no 'extermination'". Philstar.com. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  102. ↑ Layug, M.C. (19 December 2018). "Special permits for medical marijuana issued by FDA". GMA News Online. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  103. ↑ "House Bill No. 4477, 16th Congress of the Republic". Legislative Digital Resources. Senate of the Philippines, Legislative Reference Bureau. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  104. ↑ Gonzales, Y.V. (11 August 2015). "House health committee to tackle medical marijuana bill". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  105. ↑ Romero, A. (25 May 2016). "Duterte OK with medical marijuana". Philstar.com. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  106. ↑ Aning, J.; Salaverria, L.B. (19 December 2018). "Sotto: No need for new law on use of medical marijuana". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  107. ↑ Lopez, V. (8 March 2019). "Duterte reverses self, won't push for legalization of medical marijuana". GMA News Online. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  108. ↑ Concepcion, P. (16 February 2020). "Dangerous Drugs Board OKs cannabis use for epilepsy". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  109. ↑ Cabrera, R. (18 February 2020). "DDB studying rules on medical use of marijuana derivative". Philstar.com. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  110. ↑ Commission on Narcotic Drugs (2020). Report on the reconvened sixty-third session (2–4 December 2020) (PDF) (Report). United Nations. E/2020/28/Add.1–E/CN.7/2020/15/Add.1. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  111. ↑ House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Health and Appropriations (21 May 2024). Committee Report No. 1088 on House Bill No. 10439 (PDF) (Report). House of Representatives of the Philippines. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  112. ↑ Lalu, G.P. (30 July 2024). "House OKs bill allowing access to medicinal cannabis on 3rd reading". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  113. ↑ Andrade, J.I. (31 July 2024). "House approves proposed Medical Cannabis Act". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  114. ↑ Cabalza, D. (14 February 2024). "DOH: Law on medical marijuana must be science-based". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  115. ↑ Porcalla, D. (14 July 2025). "'Medical cannabis bill has fighting chance in 20th Congress'". Philstar.com. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  116. ↑ Department of Health (2025). Administrative Order No. 2025-0024: Guidelines in Availing Compassionate Special Permit for the Restricted Use of Covered Pharmaceutical Products and Medical Devices for Human Use (PDF) (Report). Department of Health. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
  117. ↑ Murcia, A. (24 February 2026). "House panels revive medical cannabis bill". Daily Tribune. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
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