Marijuana
Nora Volkow et.al (2014) deals with adverse health effects of marijuana use. Everything comes from the shift in the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes. Patients tend to be interested in the potential and real effects of marijuana on the health. Nowadays marijuana is the most widely used drug in the world and people should be aware of its effects. From the one point of view, it is associated with negative health effects, and from the other point of view, nobody has proved that it is harmful.
I have chosen this article because it deals with the ambiguous problem and considers negative and positive effects of marijuana. I found it interesting because it makes no sense to talk about what a person chooses between a glass and a bottle of wine. Meanwhile, low dose of marijuana can be a great medicine. The use of cannabis for medicinal purposes comes from the medical traditions of ancient China, India, and Egypt. At the same time the problem if the application of medical marijuana legalization is in compliance with an exact dosage of the active ingredient, because the lack of information about other chemical constituents of cannabis and its possible negative impact on health, as well as the adverse effects of marijuana smoke may outweigh the therapeutic effect of smoking. The authors mention that the main problem is that marijuana is associated with substance adverse effects and addiction and I agree with them. It can negatively impact functions of body and mind of a person.
The fact that marijuana has been classified as substance affecting mood or behavior, significantly complicates its use as a medicament, although cannabis has many advantages and can be used in the treatment of a number of diseases associated with pain, muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting, weight loss body, etc. Thus, I do agree with the authors when they mention that marijuana provides a negative impact on the brain if the use starts in adolescence or young adulthood. I believe that marijuana should be used in certain circumstances and should not be used in the treatment of young people.
I believe that the problem of the legal use of marijuana refers to the political sphere. The problem is that the medical sphere is far away from the political. Some people are afraid that the use of marijuana for treatment can provide the total removal of the ban on its use in the country. This initiative would have to be purely medical in nature, however, there are political and legal obstacles to it. The legal use of marijuana should be accompanied by strict rules needed to deal with violations and abuses. The same rules as in the treatment of opioid dependence should be applied: control, clear rules and a system of recipes. All these precautions should prevent illegal drug trafficking. I support the humanization of drug policy but it is necessary not only to fight the illegal market but also to control those things that help people. Indeed, narcotic drugs help, but it is a big problem today.
The paper stresses the need to focus future efforts on the use of marijuana for medical purposes and I agree with this idea. Recent findings prove that long-term use of marijuana can stimulate violations of the executive functions, concentration, associative thinking, and analysis of large volumes of information. On the other hand, it is difficult to determine the significance of the effects of these disorders on the person's ability to function adequately in society. Thus, new researches should focus on the use and effects of the medical use of marijuana under certain mental disorders. Such findings will help to clarify some issues regarding the interaction of marijuana, the brain, and the human psyche. It should be noted that to date there is insufficient research and clinical evidence needed to recommend marijuana or its individual chemical components as an alternative treatment of any psychiatric illness.
After all, marijuana is known as the most common illegal drug. However, its psychoactive substances can be harmful and necessary medicine. Cannabis provides powerful analgesic effects on the human body. In addition, it is able to cure a great number of different diseases. However, until now the results of evaluation of the use of marijuana needed to address psychiatric symptoms and treatment of psychiatric disorders cannot be considered unambiguous and definitive. It is partly due to the fact that this drug may have different effects on the brain and nervous system, depending on the dose and congenital genetic characteristics. In other words, people know too much about risks to mental health associated with marijuana use rather than about its benefits and application for medical purposes.
Nowadays marijuana treatment is unavailable for American patients. Therefore, some patients are forced to illegally buy marijuana. This harmful practice can be avoided by removing the ban on the use of cannabis for medical purposes. Even Hippocrates stressed that all drugs used in medicine are poisons, and just the right dose transforms the poison into a medicine. I do not agree with the authors because they mostly mentioned negative sides of the problems, adverse effects of marijuana on health and well-being, and do not take into account positive sides of marijuana use. However, there is a need to establish the necessary legal framework to examine the effect of the use of marijuana and provide additional studies.
Works Cited
Volkow, Nora et.al. "Adverse health effects of marijuana use". The New England journal of
medicine. (2014): 2219-2227.
