The study will use a qualitative systematic review approach to evaluate the literature around the prescription of Marinol and natural herbal cannabis. A detailed theoretical analysis will be conducted on existing literature relating to the research topic to get a succinct understanding of the reasons behind the preference of Marinol to natural herbal cannabis. While conducting the theoretical analysis, several keywords will be considered for the independent and dependent variables (Seers, 2015). Some of the keywords include: Marinol, Cannabis, Marijuana, Medical marijuana and FDA (Food and Drug Administration). The study will focus on a systematic review of literature from peer reviewed articles focusing on marijuana use and synthetic Marinol preferably written within a period of the last ten years (Carter, Kelly, & Brailsford, 2012). The data collected will be analyzed through the narrative synthesis. The three most crucial research questions to be considered during the theoretical research will include:
What are the component differences in Marinol and natural marijuana?
In managing pain in patients, especially those suffering from cancer, what is the most effective drug between the two?
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What are the legal ramifications surrounding the use of Marinol and natural Marijuana?
Research Method
The study will use the theoretical method. The topic under study requires a lot of time, researchers and funding. However, the theoretical method is the most appropriate because it evaluates facts and findings from past studies (Osanloo & Grant, 2016). If the study was to solely focus on quantitative and qualitative techniques, it would require a lot of traveling to interact with respondents. Consequently, time factor would not allow a conclusive study. The descriptive research design will also use a snowball sampling method where some of the participants will identify other members of the sampling space in the same field. For example, the study will seek responses from knowledgeable physicians in various healthcare centers who will in turn suggest other knowledgeable colleagues to be interviewed for the study. The objective will be to compare their responses in relation to the topic. Physicians as participants in the study are important because they deal with drug prescriptions. In that light, they have first-hand experience in the effectiveness of Marinol and natural herbal marijuana. Besides, they also have reasons why they do not prescribe herbal marijuana as they do with Marinol.
Instrumentation
Since this is a theoretical study, there is no new primary data involved. Consequently, the research will focus extensively on the theoretical aspect, which means that actual studies published or conducted on the topic will be considered. The theoretical method will focus on the acquisition of data from past studies and records. Both internet sources as well as hard print sources from the libraries will be evaluated. One other crucial place to consider will be healthcare records, especially reports from physicians. One notable limitation of the theoretical method is that it could be difficult to differentiate valid data from invalid data. Therefore, the technique needs a high level of research and intelligence skills. In that case, it will be crucial to conduct background checks to establish the validity and credibility of the data from the internet and library sources.
Data Collection
The theoretical method will be employed as a data collection tool. The study will focus on literature from past studies as published in articles, journals, as well as other published papers related to the subject (Sutton & Austin, 2015). As already mentioned the library and internet sources will be the biggest sources although other databases such as ProQuest will be incorporated. The collection of the data will be conducted in four major steps, which include: problem identification, keywords search and theoretical framework development, interpretation and prediction and finally, documentation.
References
Carter, S., Kelly, F., & Brailsford, I. (2012). Structuring your research thesis . Macmillan International Higher Education.
Osanloo, A., & Grant, C. (2016). Understanding, selecting, and integrating a theoretical framework in dissertation research: Creating the blueprint for your “house”. Administrative issues journal: connecting education, practice, and research , 4 (2), 7.
Seers, K. (2015). Qualitative systematic reviews: their importance for our understanding of research relevant to pain. British journal of pain , 9 (1), 36-40.
Sutton, J., & Austin, Z. (2015). Qualitative research: Data collection, analysis, and management. The Canadian journal of hospital pharmacy , 68 (3), 226.
