No Transplants for Medical Marijuana Users

(Seattle, Washington) It appears that life is a bit more complicated for medical marijuana users since they are being denied placement on organ transplant lists and two recent cases have raised the profile of the issue.

Timothy Garon, 56, of Seattle died after being rejected for a liver transplant and 33-year-old Jonathon Simchen of Fife, a town south of Seattle, still seeks transplant help after being rejected by two medical facilities.

The reasoning for rejecting marijuana smokers is partly because smoking of any substance has negative "patient-safety and transplant-effectiveness issues."

Additionally, since marijuana is considered illegal by the federal government, marijuana users, including those with prescriptions, are classified as substance abusers. Illegal substance abuse is customarily a disqualifying factor for transplants.

The organ transplant denial issue, however, is far from being resolved as medical-marijuana advocates protest the process.

The website Stop the Drug War called it evil to deny transplants to medical marijuana patients.

One Seattle-area alternative newspaper was so outraged that it listed the telephone numbers of University of Washington transplant center staff members.

I suggest the future will be more contentious.