Introduction
Modern healthcare centers are frequently experiencing challenges relating to the ethical and legal dilemmas involving the overall mandate of the physicians in handling uninformed patients. Whereas some people perceive marijuana as an effective psychoactive drug that may be useful in relieving certain pains and emotional anxieties, there is a pending professional argument concerning the prescription of marijuana (Marcoux, Larrat, & Vogenberg, 2013). Global healthcare experts have virtually dismissed this misleading ideology about the medical use of the prescribed marijuana for treatment in healthcare settings. Using a hypothetical case, this essay explores the ethical and legal dilemmas surrounding the legalization of marijuana as a medicinal element in healthcare centers.
Statement of the Health Care Issue
The paper analyses a healthcare scenario of a young American man who is suffering from two healthcare conditions: multiple sclerosis and chronic anxiety. Following the prevailing notion among the contemporary youth and some health centers that cannabis or marijuana is a psychoactive drug that is effective in relieving physical pain and emotional anxieties, the young man has been using marijuana as a pain-reliever for his disturbing chronic medical conditions. In modern America, the case scenario poses serious ethical and legal dilemmas to several health care centers and professionals across the United States, where youths are dwelling on the social notion that marijuana is a powerful pain-relieving drug.
Ethical Issues Associated With the Legalization of Marijuana
The practice of nursing and health care does not rely on the theorized perceptions about the prescribed drugs, but hinges on the established scientific proof on the prescription drugs for patients (Marcoux et al., 2013). The ethical dilemma concerning the legalization of marijuana for medical use to patients with chronic anxiety or multiple sclerosis is that clinicians would breach their professional working standards. According to Lachman (2009), the ANA professional code of ethics for nurses requires nurses to make ethical health care judgments that promote good health. Scientifically, the recreational use of marijuana is harmful, considering its lifelong repercussion on the mental health of individuals. Prescribing marijuana in health care centers is promoting ill health rather than cure.
The most important duties of the nurses and clinicians include promoting good health, advising patients ethically, exercising their duty of patient care, and defending the laws governing the healthcare department (Lachman, 2009). Hence, nurses ought to support and defend the good health of patients, the health care rights of the patients, and patient safety. The ANA professional code of ethics for nurses postulates that nurses should exercise moral uprightness, serve patients with dignity, provide optimum care to patients, and collaborate with others to make informed decisions that help to improve the health care environments (Lachman, 2009). Prescribing marijuana or attempting to support the socially-mislead patients to use marijuana, is unethical in the healthcare nursing practice.
Most American medical practitioners mutually understand that marijuana is still not a scientifically proven prescription drug in the vast professional health care practice. Lachman asserts that practitioners and nurses acting in contravention to the ethical principles of serving patients compassionately, helping patients make crucial health care decisions, and respecting their duties with dignity and loyalty, are destroying the healthcare reputation (2009).
The theory of the duty of care advocates for the nurses and the healthcare professionals to respect their workplace obligations and avoid duty negligence. Neglecting the personal obligation of the duty of care to patients is professionally unacceptable and unethical (Lachman, 2009). Nurses have the professional obligation to help the young man to make informed healthcare decisions.
Legal Issues Associated With the Legalization of Marijuana
In several nations globally, marijuana is still a prohibited drug whether intended for leisure use or any illegal medical practice. The American legislation banned the use of marijuana for any domestic social purpose or unproven medical intentions (Marcoux et al., 2013). Even if some American States such as Washington and the Colorado States have somewhat legitimized cannabis use for leisure purposes, the main federal laws of America consider the universal use of medical marijuana as unlawful. Marcoux et al. (2013) state that the federal government and the federal laws have the legal mandate to prosecute and charge any health care physician that unlawfully prescribes marijuana for medical use.
Regardless of whether the physicians implicitly or explicitly understand the federal marijuana regulations, the federal government shall prosecute and charge any physician that will prescribe marijuana illegally (Marcoux et al., 2013). The amended Federal laws of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still consider marijuana as a harmful and illegal drug that does not exist in the FDA-approved drug list.
Physicians that illegally prescribe medical marijuana, breach the FDA regulations and are legally responsible for such actions (Marcoux et al., 2013). Marijuana is illegal under the American regulations stipulated in the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). In the CSA Act, cannabis falls under the category of schedule I controlled drugs because it has no medicinal value according to the federal government.
According to the CSA regulations, doctors or nurses shall not prescribe marijuana for any medical purpose, unless otherwise stipulated in the conditions mentioned in the first amendment of the 1997 American Health and Safety Code (Marcoux et al., 2013). The safety code authorizes the medical use of marijuana only when it associates with people that suffer from chronic illnesses such as AIDS, cancer, chronic pain, migraine, anorexia, arthritis, glaucoma, and multiple sclerosis (Marcoux et al., 2013). Although the young man is suffering from two exceptional illnesses namely multiple sclerosis and chronic anxiety, which are present in the Health and Safety Code of 1997, the federal laws are controversial.
The federal marijuana laws controlling the medical use of marijuana require strict medical approvals from the physicians for the government to approve the medical prescription of marijuana to the patients (Marcoux et al., 2013). Unspecialized nurses cannot approve the medical use of marijuana on patients with chronic neuropathy pains. If a physician unlawfully prescribes medical marijuana, the professional may face a jail term based on the Federal judgment rules (Marcoux et al., 2013). Any accused physician must endure 85% of the punishment. The federal laws disallow alternative sentencing such as probation on these offenses. In the Netherlands, Israel, and Canada, marijuana is a highly unlawful drug, and physicians that prescribe medical marijuana often incur legal penalties.
Conclusion
The professional scope of practice for the nurses and the healthcare workers is to ensure maximum protection of the patients, respect to their duty of care, and provision of compassionate services to the needy patients. Marijuana is becoming an accepted drug for medical purposes in special clinical cases and is legal in some American States for recreational use. A disturbing dilemma is the prevailing legal conflicts and disagreements between the Federal marijuana laws and the State marijuana laws. However, the ANA professional Code of ethics for nurses considers nurses and clinicians as advocates of the patients on critical health care problems. Providing any uninformed decision or advice on marijuana use for treatment is professionally unethical and unlawful.
References
Lachman, V. (2009). Practical Use of the Nursing Code of Ethics: Part I. MEDSURG Nursing 18(1), 55-57.
Marcoux, R., Larrat, P., & Vogenberg, R. (2013). Medical Marijuana and Related Legal Aspects. Health Care & Law, 38(10), 612-619.