Open Access Peer-reviewed Research Article

Will medical cannabis treatment reduce pharmaceutical residues in the aquatic environment? A case study from an elderly nursing home

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Submitted   Feb 11, 2020
Published   Apr 23, 2020
Issue    Vol 3 (2020)
DOI   10.25082/AHB.2020.01.003

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Dror Avisar corresponding author
Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
Zach Klein
Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
Gefen Ronen-Eliraz
Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel

Abstract

High drug consumption and polypharmacy, especially in the elderly, is one of the 21st century phenomenon. It has different undesirable side effects, which may directly affect the environment. It is known that pharmaceutical residues are excreted via patients’ urine or feces to wastewater, which is then discharged to the environment. Therefore high drug consumption is contributing to the continual rise in pharmaceutical residues in the aquatic environment, and address a rising cause for concern. Alternative treatments that can relieve or improve the patient’s clinical condition, thereby reducing the consumption of pharmaceuticals, hold great potential for reducing drug residues in the environment. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the reduction in pharmaceutical consumption in a nursing home for the elderly, as a result of treatment with medical cannabis. With time, medical cannabis treatment dramatically improved patients’ symptoms and their medical indexes. As a result, the local physicians stopped prescribing drugs that were defined as unnecessary. Overall, 39 dosages of prescription drugs were canceled for the 19 elderly individuals included in this research, indicating that medical cannabis can be an effective treatment that also reduces the environmental drug load, thereby preventing water pollution

Keywords
contamination, medical cannabis, pharmaceutical residue, water resource, pain, symptoms improvement, prescribing drug reduction

Article Details

How to Cite
Avisar, D., Klein, Z., & Ronen-Eliraz, G. (2020). Will medical cannabis treatment reduce pharmaceutical residues in the aquatic environment? A case study from an elderly nursing home. Advances in Health and Behavior, 3(1), 118-124. https://doi.org/10.25082/AHB.2020.01.003
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