Revista de Ciencias Médicas de Pinar del Río (Jul 2018)
Marijuana: risks of its legalization
Abstract
Introduction: marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the world. At present, its therapeutic effects are being rediscovered and in some countries its legalization is projected, divulging its benignity and benefits. Objectives: to present the specialized criteria reflecting the Cuban position and the formulation of recommendations. Method: logical-dialectical and historical from experiences and search of updated scientific information of international reputation. Results: the campaign in favor of legalization is represented by people of good will and high ethical values; their professional profiles limit the understanding of the repercussion that can result for young people, adolescents, families and communities with accessibility of marijuana licit consumption, falling into interpretations impregnated with good will and risks of catastrophic significance for health. It demonstrates the lack of scientific support and clinical evidence to justify these campaigns, experiences, preventive positions and problems arising from the consumption of illicit drugs, especially marijuana. Conclusions: the abuse of hard drugs is opposed to the Comprehensive Mental Health, a principle supported by institutions and authors of recognized prestige, positions from which the most frequent propaganda advertisements that support the convenience of legalization are collected, to conclude, formulating the values of judgment that demonstrate the absence of medical justification regarding these recommendations. The need for a healthy, scientific and ethical position that closes the ways to opportunism and to the not socially justified interests by the expected benefit starts.
