DYING OVER DRUG POLITICS

Past Time To Resolve Conflict

The conflict over state and federal medical marijuana laws must be resolved.

California and 12 other states now allow the use of medical
marijuana, yet the federal government does not.

That means sick people with authorization from their doctors to use
marijuana are still in legal jeopardy, that California employers can
fire workers who use marijuana recommended by a physician, and that
people in need of an organ transplant can be barred from
organ-transplant waiting lists.

Too bad there is not a common-sense transplant.

The Star wrote last month about a Seattle man, Timothy Garon, denied
a spot on an organ-transplant list because he had used medical
marijuana, authorized by his physician, for symptoms related to Hepatitis C.

The University of Washington Medical Center, which has strict rules
about organ recipients' drug use, denied Mr. Garon a shot at a new
liver, in part, because marijuana is illegal under federal law.

He died May 1.

Now, the University of Washington Medical Center is using the same
sorry reason to deny a spot on its organ-transplant list to Jonathon
Simchen, 33, of Seattle, according to a May 19 article in The Los
Angeles Times.

The Times reported Mr. Simchen, a diabetic with failing kidneys and
pancreas, was also denied a spot in Seattle's Virginia Mason Hospital
transplant program because of his use of medical marijuana.

Mr. Simchen cannot afford to wait for Congress to get around to
resolving the state-federal law conflict. It has already been three
years since the U.S. Supreme Court recommended that Congress act.

However, medical centers do not have to base life-and-death decisions
on the federal government's inane, outdated 1970s drug-war policies.

There is no reason why, in 2008, marijuana is listed as a Schedule 1
drug, meaning it is deemed to have no medical use, when drugs such as
cocaine and morphine are listed as Schedule 2 drugs, available by prescription.

Medical-marijuana use, authorized by a physician, should never be a
reason for denying anyone a shot at receiving a life-saving organ
transplant. Indeed, people in need of organ transplants are some of
the most-likely people to benefit from medical marijuana.

We understand there might be political risks to a member of Congress
who takes this on. What we don't understand is why any physician
would put politics before patients.