Posted: 5/2/2008 at 01:30 PM
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I saw the following article this morning. What do you think about Medical Marijuana? What do you think about this story?
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SEATTLE (AP) โ A man who was denied a liver transplant because he used marijuana with medical approval to ease the symptoms of hepatitis C has died.
Timothy Garon, 56, died Thursday at Bailey-Boushay House, an intensive care nursing center, said his lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, and Alisha Mark, a spokeswoman for Virginia Mason Medical Center, which operates Bailey-Boushay.
His death came a week after his doctor told him a University of Washington Medical Center committee had again denied him a spot on the liver transplant list because of his use of marijuana, although it was authorized under Washington state law.
The case highlights an ethical consideration for those allocating organs for transplant: whether using dope with a doctor's blessing should be held against a dying patient in need of a transplant.
The Virginia-based United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation's transplant system, leaves it to individual hospitals to develop criteria for transplant candidates.
At some, people who use "illicit substances" โ including medical marijuana, even in the dozen states that allow it โ are automatically rejected. At others, patients are given a chance to reapply if they stay clean for six months. Marijuana is illegal under federal law.
(full story)
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What about a smoker who wants a lung transplant? Or an elderly obese person wants a new heart?
I know for sure I would not have received the care I did if I was a smoker....... and they always asked.
I guess I'm ambivalent. To me the legalization of MM is a joke on the drug enforcement agencies and an excuse for ignoring a drug dependency of questionable medical value. I would guess the hospital probably wants to allocate scarce resources to help those people who have the best chance of surviving and who potentially would give more back to the community given a second chance. Of course they'd be foolish to state that in writing. Anyway it's a moot point. You can bet the lawyers will be lining up to make that hospital pay in order to "protect" the rights of the poor, defenseless, drug addled and addicted. Hey, don't Bogart that J, man.
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