Regarding sentiments about medical marijuana, Indonesia has come a long way in a short amount of time.
The government is near to establishing laws allowing for study into the legal plant’s potential medical use, according to Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin’s statement from yesterday.
“We’re assessing it. Regulations for medical uses will be released soon,” Budi added without offering a deadline.
Although more potent than marijuana, morphine is used medically. In that regard, marijuana and morphine are similar, and morphine has advantages.
Budi made his statement after Vice President Ma’ruf Amin, the nation’s highest ecclesiastical body, urged the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) earlier this week to issue a fatwa (religious edict) allowing marijuana for medical usage. Ma’ruf served as MUI’s chair before being appointed vice president in 2019.
Singer Andien uploaded a picture of a woman named Santi Warastuti calling for legal changes to allow medical marijuana in order to lessen her daughter’s suffering from cerebral palsy, which brought the issue into the public eye in Indonesia.
The Indonesian government’s ban on all kinds of marijuana was challenged in court by Santi and two other mothers whose children had diseases that can be treated with medical marijuana in 2020.
A fatwa authorizing medical marijuana, according to MUI, will be the subject of debate in the near future. This would greatly aid Santi’s legal evaluation.
This week, the administration and the House of Representatives (DPR) both vowed to take studies supporting the use of marijuana for medical purposes into consideration.
