Do you think patients should have the right to use medical marijuana?

Nurses General Nursing

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  1. Do you think patients should have the right to use medical marijuana?

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      Yes
    • 128
      No

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Do you think patients should have the right to use medical marijuana?

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Infusion, peds, informatics.

i think that any adult should be able to smoke marijuana, for whatever reason.

just as long as they arn't smoking it around me.

i agree with those who say it isn't any worse than alcohol.

actually, off the top of my head, i'd venture to guess that it is safer than alcohol. less physical damage to the person (alcohol's effect on liver, bleeding, etc vs marijuana smoke's effect on the lungs); and lets face it -- people who are smoking marijuana don't tend to get into bar fights.

the risks of using while driving are probably similar.

the problem that i see is that there currenlty isn't a test (blood or urine) to determine if one is currently impaired by marijuana use -- nothing similar to blood alcohol levels. sure, you can tell if they have smoked it within the past several days, but no way to tell if that glassy look on their face is because they smoked a joint before coming to work vs just needing that first cup of coffee.

i would imagine that some sort of test could be developed, though it may be more difficult since thc is fat-soluble, rather than water-soluble. i doubt anyone has tried to work through the problems, though since as it currently stands, all you need is a test that shows if marijuana is in the person's system; not one that tells how much marijuana is in a person's system.

at any rate, given the relativly low adverse health effects of marijuana (esp compared to many medications we give on a regular basis), it really amazes me that so many people are so insistent about keeping it from those who might benefit medically from its use.

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You are kidding? How many nurses and doctors come to work drunk? Pfft. I have only seen it once, and that person was deregistered. Whats the difference?Are you saying that the same ppl who don't drink before they come to work, will smoke marijuana before they come to work, thus being impaired in their employment?

Well I have been a travel nurse for years and have worked in several states and settings and I would LOVE to say that I have only seen one drunk nurse or Dr. The difference is that if you drink most people who get close to you will smell it on your breath. If they report you and you are drunk you're in trouble. But if you have a script for it you'd be fine. THATS my point. Believe it or not the fear of losing your license is actually large enough to restrain some people.

But your logic to me just doesn't add up. I am not pro providing marijuana to everyone, just to those who need it, just like any other medication.

That's simply because I don't share your view. If you look back my position was never that people who genuinely need MJ for illness or pain management should not get it. Just don't be naive enough to think it will stop there. I wonder how liberal some on this thread would be if they knew their surgeon had just smoked out before they operated on them Hmmmm....

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[mouse]DISCLAIMER[/mouse]

I must say that I do not endorse any illegal activity by anyone. This rant is solely my opinion and is not meant to be intended as an excuse to do anything that is potentially harmful to your person... legally or otherwise.

[mouse]END[/mouse]

:deadhorseIs it me, or has this issue been beaten to death? People will always smoke cannabis (the term "marijuana" bothers me. It's the Mexican slang for the plant Cannabis Sativa/Indica), whether the government wants them to or not. Illegal or not, there will always be "midnight tokers" out there in the world. Whether the self-righteous or libertarians voice their opinions until Armageddon... all of it, in the end, is pointless. The issue at hand, however is whether or not patients should have the right to be prescribed medical marijuana or not. My answer to that question is yes.

I believe, however, that it is the prescriber's responsibility to, well... prescribe responsibly. There are a lot of risks involved with the legalization of medical marijuana

If anything, this so-called "war" is promoting drug use more than it is controlling it. The more you tell your child not to do something the more likely they are to do it. Honestly, though I am not a parent, I would rather have my child experiment with cannabis than say... oh I dunno... Adderall, Oxycontin (or any opioid for that matter), DXM, Sudafed (pseudoephedrine, aka "truckers speed"), Xanax, Benadryl and most especially alcohol. Also note that half of those medications are readily available OTC (excluding alcohol).

This is a matter that I believe will be resolved in my lifetime, but as of now there are too many people full-throttle for it and there are too many people who are hands down-against it and the majority are probably never going to be able to reach a middle ground.

If your (hypothetical) grandmother who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, cataracts and has lost her appetite due to radiation therapy wants to smoke a little wacky-tabacky... then just try and stop her. Chances are she's smoking it anyway, prescription or not.

Erowid on Cannabis (NWS)

[wiki]Marijuana[/wiki]

[wiki]War on Drugs[/wiki]

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Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.
The problem that I see is that when it is legalized everyone with a doctor is going to suddenly have a "legitimate" reason for smoking out. GERD, Chronic Fatigue, Restless leg syndrome, bat wing boils etc... I'm sorry but I don't want my nurses and doctors to be hopped up on Mary Jane while working on me. Or my cops, EMT drivers, firemen, accountant, you name it. Once its legalized you will just open the floodgates for people who would never jeopardize their careers now that will start using. To pretend it will only be used for CA and MS patients and the like is naive at best.

That is even more Hilarious

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Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

Personally, I dont drink, do legal pain meds, or smoke. But if legalized. Yes I could see smoking a little weed like when I was young. Particularly if it was organically grown.

A little Colombian, A little Jamaican, A little Kona Gold etc.

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Infusion, peds, informatics.
personally, i dont drink, do legal pain meds, or smoke. but if legalized. yes i could see smoking a little weed like when i was young. particularly if it was organically grown.

a little colombian, a little jamaican, a little kona gold etc.

i drink a little, don't smoke (anything :) ), and the lortab i was given after my wisdom tooth was removed 3 years ago is still sitting in my medicine cabinet. i have no desire to smoke (or otherwise consume) marijuana. but i don't have issue with others using it.

have you seen anyone in the er for marijuana? or only mj that was laced or contaminated? there's a diff.

i have. i have seen several (more than five) young men in their late teens/early 20s come in (by ambulance) because they smoked a joint and then started to "feel funny." well, duh. if you don't want to feel funny, then don't smoke it. the most recent patient was a teen about 6 wks ago. mom was highly upset because the patient was discharged by the doc pretty quickly with only a basic work-up.

as to someone using pot and wanting to fight - i beg to differ there having experienced abuse at the hands of a pothead. and being driven in a car with the same pothead as he sped through town at 80-90 mph trying to scare the blankety blank out of me. and how he used the last $40 we had to buy pot instead of heating oil when i had a new baby in the house and it was march in reno and snowing . . . .

some people have violent tendencies, and marijuana isn't likely to dampen that. i think most of us are saying that marijuana use doesn't generally make a person violent. that is, turn a normally even-tempered person into someone wanting to pick a fight with everyone. alcohol, cocaine, meth are all known to do that.

and there are also plenty of cancer/hiv patients that have used mj that can tell you that it did not do squat for nausea or appetite or pain.

i've read several studies that echo what you are saying (i went to school at a university where the college of pharmacy did some significant research into medical marijuana use. ) however, pain and nausea are pretty individual. zofran is supposed to be one of the best aniemetics out there (and at the price, it better be :) ). but it doesn't work for everyone. i have plenty of patients that are dissappointed they are getting zofran rather than phenergan; i hypothesize this is because zofran doesn't make them zone out the way phenergan does. maybe marijuana works much the same way -- doesn't relieve the nausea so much as decrease the awareness of the nausea. to me, it really doesn't matter. if it helps someone chronically ill deal with their suffering, then let them use it.

[color=#483d8b]i wouldn't want cost issues to make it a first-line treatment, but if it is a particular patient's first choice for an antiemetic, i would be ok with that.

[color=#483d8b]for those who keep brining up marinol, it doesn't work as well as actually smoking the marijuana. i'm told that is because smoking is the most effecient way to absorb the active ingredients, since the lungs are highly vascular. the effect is quick and effecient delivery.

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Specializes in UR/PA, Hematology/Oncology, Med Surg, Psych.
The problem that I see is that when it is legalized everyone with a doctor is going to suddenly have a "legitimate" reason for smoking out. GERD, Chronic Fatigue, Restless leg syndrome, bat wing boils etc... I'm sorry but I don't want my nurses and doctors to be hopped up on Mary Jane while working on me. Or my cops, EMT drivers, firemen, accountant, you name it. Once its legalized you will just open the floodgates for people who would never jeopardize their careers now that will start using. To pretend it will only be used for CA and MS patients and the like is naive at best.

So....even if it helps reduce suffering in those with certain illnesses, it shouldn't be legalized because of abuse potential? Well with that line of thinking Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin, Demerol, and scores of other medications should be illegal also. Can't add alcohol to that list, because it doesn't even have a medicinal use that I'm aware of, but it is legal.

I think it should be decriminalized, our police and courts shouldn't have to spend their time and resources prosecuting those that use it. They have more important things to do IMHO.

I wouldn't want to use it even if it was legal, I like living in reality. But there are those people with health issues that could benefit by it. And any healthcare provider found working while under the influence, should be disciplined by the employer and BON as they see fit.

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:offtopic:I know... but alcohol does have... limited... medical use.

Can't add alcohol to that list because it doesn't even have a medicinal use that I'm aware of, but it is legal.[/quote']

Alcohol

I remember hearing a case of some stupid kids getting alcohol poisioning from drinking hand santizer... :trout:

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Hell yes,100% maybe everyone would feel like this

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some people have violent tendencies, and marijuana isn't likely to dampen that. i think most of us are saying that marijuana use doesn't generally make a person violent. that is, turn a normally even-tempered person into someone wanting to pick a fight with everyone. alcohol, cocaine, meth are all known to do that.

[color=#483d8b].

he didn't have violent tendencies until his inhibitions were lowered by the use of cannabis . . . . and i realize this is anecdotal but i was responding to a post where someone joked about pot smokers not being violent or not driving fast or not ending up in the er.

alois - you could change the word "cannabis" to "meth" and make the same argument for legality.

i mentioned earlier - there is a doc in santa cruz who writes rx for pot for no real medical reasons and my nephew, a highway patrolman, regularly stops kids under the influence with this docs rx.

so, yeah, i do think the medical cannabis crowd are merely potheads who want to make it legal for their own sake.

as to true medical uses . .. there are many studies that show it doesn't do much for nausea at all and that, as others mentioned, there are newer legal drugs for nausea that work great.

i simply think if we start making illegal intoxicants legal, we have no real grounds to say stop. so, meth, crack cocaine, heroine, etc., should be legal too. because the "midnight tokers" will always be toking . . .so to speak.

steph (can't believe i'm posting on this old thread . .. again!). :nono:

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Specializes in Physician office, Hosp, Nursing Home.

Yes. Hmmm. I feel a migraine coming on. LOL. Seriously no one should suffer in this day and age. As a nurse who has seen a lot of suffering if it help I'm all for it.

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I have researched this topic to an extreme extent and YES i strongly believe this drug should by all means be legalized. The studies on this specific drug display so many reasons why this truly should be legalized. IMO i feel the drug is no worse than many things that are currently legal other than the fact of it being illegal which poses it to be much more dangerous. I feel specifically that the government and anti drug companies have brainwashed society to no extent. Society has been educated unproperly constantly given false information or only the negetive effects of it but in all reality you can take anything in the world and throw negetive theory, propositions, facts etc. at it. And as far as medically, absolutely, why not use something that can help out the people, i mean isnt that what the health care system is here for..... ( well at least SUPPOSED to be) :uhoh3:

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