Short answer. They benefit. Section 93 provides that if a drug is removed from the list of dangerous drugs, all persons convicted or detained for its use or possession are automatically released, and all pending prosecutions involving that drug under the Act are dismissed. Delisting is done by the Dangerous Drugs Board after notice and hearing.
What the law says
In case of removal of a drug from the list of dangerous drugs and precursors and essential chemicals, all persons convicted and/or detained for the use and/or possession of such a drug shall be automatically released and all pending criminal prosecution involving such a drug under this Act shall forthwith be dismissed
RA 9165, Section 93 — Reclassifying Or Delisting A Drug. Read the full provision →
The effect of removal
The section is explicit about what delisting does: in case of removal of a drug from the list of dangerous drugs and precursors and essential chemicals, all persons convicted and/or detained for the use and/or possession of such a drug shall be automatically released and all pending criminal prosecution involving such a drug under this Act shall forthwith be dismissed. Two consequences follow at once — the automatic release of those convicted or detained for use or possession of the removed drug, and the immediate dismissal of pending prosecutions involving it. The relief is built into the section itself; no separate law is needed once the removal takes effect.
Who does the delisting, and how
The power to reclassify, add or remove a substance belongs to the Dangerous Drugs Board. A proceeding can be started by the PDEA, the DOH, or by petition from an interested party, and the Board conducts its own investigation and a hearing. It weighs factors such as a substance's potential for abuse, the scientific evidence of its effects, its pattern of abuse and the risk to public health, and it takes the country's treaty commitments into account. The Board must also publish notice of the hearing in a newspaper of general circulation before it acts. Removal is thus the end of a formal regulatory process.
The relief is specific to use and possession
The automatic-release clause is written for those convicted or detained for the use or possession of the delisted drug. It is keyed to the drug being taken off the list, not to a general reopening of a case for other reasons. The section's other provisions handle the separate situation where a substance is merely reclassified between categories — for instance moved between dangerous drugs and controlled precursors — and those set out which penalties then apply in pending prosecutions. So reclassification and outright removal are treated differently and should not be confused.
What this means in practice, and next steps
Delisting is uncommon and follows the Board's formal process, so the trigger for this relief is a concrete regulatory action, not an argument a defendant can simply advance in court. The relief operates only once a removal has actually taken effect. Anyone who believes a drug relevant to their case has been removed from the list should first confirm the Board's action and its effective date, then work through the consequences for a conviction or a pending case with counsel, since the automatic release depends on a genuine removal rather than a proposed or contemplated one.