Read this editorial; there are other sources one can find on the
internet that also address this issue. Why would they not give organs
to people who use pot? It sounds like another example of the type of
moralizing and shaming that the US has been doing to the most helpless
and most in need in our society. This has been going on since the early
90s "family values" era and both major parties are guilty of doing it.
From the Ventura Co. Star...
Editorial: Dying over drug politics
Past time to resolve conflict
Thursday, May 22, 2008
The conflict over state and federal medical marijuana laws must be
resolved.
California and 12 other states now allow the use of medical marijuana,
yet the federal government does not.
That means sick people with authorization from their doctors to use
marijuana are still in legal jeopardy, that California employers can
fire workers who use marijuana recommended by a physician, and that
people in need of an organ transplant can be barred from
organ-transplant waiting lists.
Too bad there is not a common-sense transplant.
The Star wrote last month about a Seattle man, Timothy Garon, denied a
spot on an organ-transplant list because he had used medical marijuana,
authorized by his physician, for symptoms related to Hepatitis C.
The University of Wa****ngton Medical Center, which has strict rules
about organ recipients' drug use, denied Mr. Garon a shot at a new
liver, in part, because marijuana is illegal under federal law.
He died May 1.
Now, the University of Wa****ngton Medical Center is using the same sorry
reason to deny a spot on its organ-transplant list to Jonathon Simchen,
33, of Seattle, according to a May 19 article in The Los Angeles Times.
The Times re****ted Mr. Simchen, a diabetic with failing kidneys and
pancreas, was also denied a spot in Seattle's Virginia Mason Hospital
transplant program because of his use of medical marijuana.
Mr. Simchen cannot afford to wait for Congress to get around to
resolving the state-federal law conflict. It has already been three
years since the U.S. Supreme Court recommended that Congress act.
However, medical centers do not have to base life-and-death decisions on
the federal government's inane, outdated 1970s drug-war policies.
There is no reason why, in 2008, marijuana is listed as a Schedule 1
drug, meaning it is deemed to have no medical use, when drugs such as
cocaine and morphine are listed as Schedule 2 drugs, available by
prescription.
Medical-marijuana use, authorized by a physician, should never be a
reason for denying anyone a shot at receiving a life-saving organ
transplant. Indeed, people in need of organ transplants are some of the
most-likely people to benefit from medical marijuana.
We understand there might be political risks to a member of Congress who
takes this on. What we don't understand is why any physician would put
politics before patients.
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