Need an Organ — Don’t Smoke Weed Revisited

Earlier on this blog, I reported on the case of Timothy Garon who was suffering from hepatitis C and was in urgent need of a liver transplant.  Timothy was refused a spot on the transplant list because of his use of marijuana and has subsequently died.  The moral of this story was not to use marijuana or other recreational pharmaceuticals if you may be in need of an organ transplant.

Unfortunately for Jonathan Simchen who is in dire need of a kidney, he did not follow this advice.  Instead, he followed the advice of his doctor who prescribed medical marijuana to control his nausea.  Now, Jonathan may end up paying the ultimate price for smoking weed — a premature death because he was removed from the organ transplant list once his use of marijuana was discovered.  See Marcus Baram, Medical Marijuana User Denied Organ Transplant, ABC News, May 20, 2008.