The Stranger has news of yet another(story) liver transplant denied due to medical Marijuana use.
"People are following the law and they're getting screwed," says Lennon Garon, the son of liver patient Timothy Garon. "If alcohol was illegal and marijuana was legal, my dad would be alive."
According to statements from Virginia Mason and the UW, which won't discuss individual patients' cases, the main reason for denying transplants to marijuana smokers is the risk that the organ might be rejected. According to officials at both hospitals, a mold occasionally found in marijuana and tobacco, called aspergillus, could foster new infections in additional organs.
Because the hospitals treat medical marijuana as an addictive drug, they believe transplant patients may be unable to stop smoking pot after the transplant—allowing the harmful mold to destroy the new organ.
You have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! Mold?
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Alcohol keeps you from being
Alcohol keeps you from being listed too. So does smoking. So does any illegal drug use. With 2/3 people dying before they get a liver transplant why does anyone find it surprising that marijuana whether legal in YOUR state or not would prevent you from being on the liver transplant list. Marijuana isn't legal in most states and UNOS has strict criteria (along with the MELD score) to try to keep some semblance of *fairness* to the allocation of the livers. Why would you expect any transplant center to give anyone a liver that didn't have close to 100% odds of making it through the surgery, not rejecting the liver, and not having another disease that could cause damage to that liver and being able to LIVE with that liver for many years? It is, after all, about a 1/2 million dollar surgery followed by many years of high cost antirejection medications. I have lost many friends to Hepatitis C, many who were waiting on livers for YEARS that never came. While I am very sorry to hear about the passing of yet another person because of this insidious disease, I find it ridiculous that his doctor as quoted in other articles had *no idea medical marijuana would keep him from being listed* PLEASE!!! How ignorant can a physician be?
To the person who said *MOLD?? You have to be kidding??* Some transplant centers even make you get rid of your PETS before you can be listed. SIGN YOUR DONOR cards so there are more organs available and perhaps the criteria can be *loosened a bit*. 10 years ago I had friends transplanted that were still smoking but as more and more people were diagnosed and more and more livers were needed *they* needed to create some type of system that was *fair* to everyone in the U.S. and most states don't allow *legal marijuana*. UNOS is a national organization.... not a state by state organization. One of the solutions is to get Tested for Hep C earlier while there is still time for lifestyle changes and possible treatment to prevent even getting to the transplant phase. So GET TESTED!! This is everyone's disease!