Medical Marijuana & Transplant Policy

This is a very interesting story about a man being removed from the liver transplant list in the United States.  The patient had been prescribed medical marijuana while battling liver cancer.  The marijuana was prescribed by his physician.  As his health declined, he was put on the liver transplant list.  He was soon delisted because he tested positive for marijuana.  It would seem that if the marijuana was part of his treatment, he should still be eligible for the transplant.  Find the full article by clicking on the link at the end of the text.

Press release from Americans for Safe Access


Los Angeles, CA -- Sixty-three year-old medical marijuana patient Norman B. Smith was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer in 2009 and sought treatment from the internationally lauded Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Smith's oncologist at Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Steven Miles, approved of his medical marijuana use as a means to deal with the effects of chemotherapy and pain from an unrelated back surgery. In September 2010, Smith became eligible for a liver transplant, but after testing positive for marijuana in February he was removed from the transplant list. Smith's cancer was in remission until just recently, but now he is scheduled to undergo radiation treatments in the next few days.

Medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) issued a letter today urging the Cedars-Sinai Transplant Department to promptly re-list Smith for a liver transplant. The letter also urges Cedars-Sinai to change its transplant eligibility policy. "Denying necessary transplants to medical marijuana patients is the worst kind of discrimination," said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, who also authored the letter to Cedars-Sinai. "Cedars-Sinai would not be breaking any laws, federal or otherwise, by granting Norman Smith a liver transplant, and it's certainly the ethical thing to do."


Sixty-three year-old medical marijuana patient