Discussions; elderly and overprescribed medications, legalizing marijuana, ending phase with groups

The implications of the legalization of marijuana for medical use and/or recreational use of Coloradoand Washington are the only states in the united states that allow the use of marijuana for recreational purposes. However, there has been intensive lobbing behind the legalization of marijuana for medical use. The theory that marijuana can be used for medicinal value is about to be accepted in almost half the country (Shim, 2014). The paper will discuss the implications of legalization of marijuana for medicinal and recreational use. The paper will approach the topic in a social work perspective and list its implications on a Micro, Mezzo and Macro level. The paper will explore five sources to help substantiate the discussion.
Key words, micro, mezzo, macro, medicinal marijuana
The implications of the legalization of marijuana for medical use and/or recreational use
Marijuana for a long time has been regarded as an illegal drug for a long time. Research has shown that some properties in marijuana have medicinal values and can be used to cure some of the chronic deceases. Many states are joining in the lobbing for legalization of marijuana for medicinal use. In addition, they want to legalize marijuana for relational use. However, what will be the implications of legalizing marijuana?
Legalization of marijuana for medicinal purpose or for recreation leads to diminutions in apparent damage and communal condemnation. This also leads to an increase in the use of marijuana among the community and the youths. This fact sends the wrong message to the community about the use of marijuana and its medicinal properties, making campaigns against its abuse useless (CADCA, 2011). Legalizing marijuana for medicinal use, would give users to smoke it every now and then, without considering that even medicines are given with prescriptions. Use of marijuana has adverse effects on the Micro, Mezzo and Macro level because it hampers the relating and interpersonal capabilities of a person. The continued use of marijuana either for medicinal value or for relational use will make it hard for social workers to provide interventions on a large scale on issues that affect the whole community. This is because if there are a number of people using marijuana in the community, it will be very hard to keep them on the same level with the others. Uncontrolled use of marijuana will raise the moral decay of a society and increase incidents of violent crimes in the society.
In most cases, you find older people being inappropriately medicated. Every year, there are more than 9 million adverse drug reactions that occur in elderly Americans -). These drug reactions are associated with inappropriate medication. This does not mean that the people who prescribe these medicines do not know what they are doing, but it is because with age the immune and the resistance capacity of the body wares down. If a strong prescription is given to a patient, it will react with the body differently. To avoid this, pharmaceutical companies can create medicines that can be used by the elderly in the society. Alternatively, when prescribing these pills, the physician should make the prescription mild. In addition, there should be a list of medicines that cannot be prescribed to the elderly in the society. In addition, the prescribing physician should be well aware of the patient age and health history.
Herbal remedies or botanical medicines are a popular choice of medicines among the elderly in the society. Botanical medicines refer to plants, roots or seeds that have medicinal properties that can be used to regulate or cure a disease or condition (University of Maryland Medical Centre, 2013). They are most preferred because they do not have many side effects and can be used by anybody regardless of their age. Many pharmaceutical companies are making their medicines using herbal remedies. However, not all herbal remedies are safe to use, you need to have adequate information about the herbal remedies that you want to use. To make sure that you get the best out of an herbal remedy it is good to grow your own (Doyle, 2013)
References
CADCA. (2011). Effects of Medical Marijuana Legalization. Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration.
Doyle, Ashely. (2013). Homegrown Herbal Remedies. Retrieved on 15th march 2014
http://www. healthline. com/health-slideshow/herbal-remedies-from-your-garden.
Shim, E. (2014). A 22nd State Is About to Legalize Medical Marijuana. Retrieved on 15th
March 2014 http://www. policymic. com/articles/85291/a-22nd-state-is-about-to-legalize-medical-marijuana.
University of Maryland medical center. (2013). Herbal medicine. Retrieved on 15th march 2014
http://umm. edu/health/medical/altmed/treatment/herbal-medicine.
Worstpill. org. (2014). How Extensive Is the Problem of Specific Adverse Drug Reactions?.
Retrieved on 15th march 2014. http://www. worstpills. org/public/page. cfm? op_id= 5.