DPR Open to Medical Marijuana Discourse, Urged to Revise Narcotics Law
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25 March 2021 12:28 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Sativa Nusantara Foundation (YSN), an organization that focuses on advocating for the use of Indonesian plants including cannabis, is pushing the House of Representatives (DPR) and the government to immediately revise the Narcotics Law.
“So patients who need medical marijuana in Indonesia have the access that is guaranteed by the law,” said YSN Director of Law and Policy, Yohan Misero, in his statement on Thursday, March 25, 2021.
Yohan appreciated the DPR's initiative to open up a discourse on medical marijuana at the working meeting with the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) last week. “This is surely a good idea that is important for us to monitor together,” he said.
According to him, changes of the regulation have been running slowly for the past four years, causing a number of victims. This, he added, fueled the civil society coalition to challenge Article 6 and Article 8 of Law No. 35 of 2009 on narcotics so that the type-1 narcotics can be used for medical purposes.
Besides, the United Nations (UN) Commission on Narcotic Drugs at the end of 2020 changed the classification of cannabis in the 1961 Narcotics Convention.
Yohan argued that the Health Ministry should be able to respond to this development by changing the narcotic drug’s category in the Narcotics Law so that cannabis, its substances, and derivative products can be utilized for medical purposes.
Read: Thailand Plans to Widen Medical Marijuana Production
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