Why Are MMJ Patients Being Denied Organ Transplants?

Why are Medical Marijuana Patients Being Denied Organ Transplants? from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

The discrimination towards cannabis users, medical or otherwise, never seems to end.

As if it wasn’t hard enough being sick, cannabis users in US hospitals are even being denied organ transplants simply because they made the decision to smoke pot.

A report from Buzzfeed revealed that the policies surrounding patients who need organ transplants who test positive for marijuana changes depending on the hospital. It’s the United Network for Organ Sharing that is in charge for the US organ supply, and there is currently no official policy regarding drug or alcohol consumption. In other words, if you use pot either recreationally or medicinally, and you need an organ transplant, you just need to cross your fingers that you don’t end up in a hospital that thinks it’s going to be a problem.

When hospitals deny cannabis-consuming patients, are their decisions justified?

Although there has been a few instances wherein substance abuse has caused issues during and after transplantation, the real concern here is when patients fail to comply with the critical post-transplantation medical regimen that requires patients to take immunosuppresants that are needed to assist the organ in acclimating to the new body, as well as proper exercise.

But cannabis isn’t like any other drug. In fact, its THC content has immunosuppressant properties, which reduce the chances of transplant rejection. THC works by signaling to the T-cells, which function as the protectors of the body, to relax the immune system so that recovery time is minimized. And since cannabis consumers already consume the THC and CBD, these cannabinoids actually help improve the chances of transplant success in a safe, natural way.

A 2010 study says that … “even though current therapies in transplantation aim at suppressing the immune response, they also exhibit significant toxicity upon chronic use. In rodents, long term exposure to THC did not affect survival, and in some cases, incidence of several types of cancers was reduced upon THC treatment.”

But there is still much that we don’t understand about how cannabis and its impact on organ transplants. That’s also because all cannabis is NOT equal. Consuming contaminated pot could cause fungal infections, resulting in organ transplant rejection, and this could lead to serious health problems that should not be taken lightly. However, this responsibility should lie in the hands of regulatory bodies, instead of making MMJ patients suffer the consequences.

According to the Buzzfeed report, there are many reasons why physicians deny cannabis users of organ transplants. There’s the worry of infection, the worry that cannabis users aren’t responsible enough to take care of their new organs, but the most worrisome of all…. Hospitals are “looking for some way to kick people off the list” because of such a high demand, according to NYU School of Medicine’s head of ethics, Arthur Caplan. At the time of writing, there were over 118,000 people in the United States alone who were waiting for a suitable organ.

A 2016 report called Marijuana and Listing for Heart Transplant: A Survey of Transplant Providers explains comprehensively the feedback from 360 professionals in the medical community including surgeons, physicians, organ transplant coordinators, and nurses from around the world. A quick glance at the report reveals that most of those who were surveyed think that cannabis use shouldn’t prevent people from receiving transplants although when you dig deeper, it highlights many of the disturbing facets of the medical system.

The report stated that 64% of respondents agree that patients who legally consume cannabis should be allowed a heart transplant, while 72% believe that recreational use can disqualify a patient from a heart transplant. Additionally, 83% think that patients who use cannabis if they live in a state where it is not legal shouldn’t be allowed a heart transplant. That’s quite the disturbing news.

What’s worse…. 66% of respondents think that cannabis is harmful to the body, while 83% think that patients who medicate with Marinol should be allowed a heart transplant and 63% think that patients who use opiates every day for chronic pain should ALSO be listed.

So on top of the government making it difficult (or nearly impossible in many cases) for patients to obtain the medicine that they need, the medical community is adding insult to injury by acting on ambiguous guidelines. And Big Pharma has the medical community wrapped around its finger… we all already knew that.

We need our doctors to be both smart and ethical, after all that time in medical school. But doctors also need federal guidance, without which the barriers on marijuana research will never be broken and the hundreds of thousands of patients across the country will not just be prevented from getting the medicine that they need, but the organs that they need, to survive.