Hospitals deny patients transplants for using medical marijuana

That's bullshit! I'd sue the hospital ASAP.

OMFG!!!!!!!!

More hysteria and ignorance. Surprising that it comes from a university teaching hospital.

No.....he can't use Medical Marijuana...This is just an excuse his insurance company is using to get out of their responsibility of meeting this man's medical needs.

They probably judged him also by they type of tribal earrings, urban hat and clothes that he is wearing in the photo. That is called profiling. I know it is illegal for law enforcement officials but I am wondering about insurance claims adjusters?. Also, I can't help but wonder if the outcome would have been different if he was dressed differently...like in a suit?.

However, I am sure the greedy corporate drug companies rejoice when his docs prescribe a "more legal" drug like Oxycontin, Methadone or other highly addictive opium based pain killers..it means money to them! Get us all on these drugs and the drug companies will be just like the oil companies with same kinds of profits. I'm sure they are already close.

Furthermore, a society addicted to pain killers need petroleum to get to the doc for the prescription and then to get to the pharmacy to get the script filled..seems like vicious circle to me...a very grim picture.

But, Alas! Instead we are forced to play by the corporate drug companies unfair rules and take opium based medications we don't want instead of something grown naturally in nature, shown to have little adverse side effects and that might actually help to ease humanely and compassionately alieviate patients sufferings. These greedy drug companies would rather add to his problems and to their ever fattening bank accounts, by having him addicted to THEIR PROVEN HIGHLY ADDICTIVE PAIN KILLERS. These drug companies aren't getting a cut of the money when someone is allowed to grow and use their own natural medication that has been proven to help some people with chronic pain, anorexia or anxiety just to name a few diagnoses.

In addition, there are the insurance companies....give them any reason to deny a person needed medical care...they will do anything to get out of paying. They are just as guilty as the drug companies. They don't approve needed tests for this or that reason...for instance, the doc's office didn't request the needed test using the "correct" word to get an obviously needed stress test approved and then the insurance denies the test. I know this happens...first hand experience with my husband who had a major heart attack 2 years ago.

Moreover, the doc's are afraid to give recommendations for the use of medical marijuana because of their fear of being ostracize by thier own peer group.

I wonder what insurance company this patient has...I could guess and probably be right in one or two guesses.

And just for everyone's info, I have been a nurse for almost 30 years!

Sign me:
Cherish LIfe- while you can...it's but a vapor...gone before you know it..especially with our current and corrupt health care system.

Peace,
Cherish

When I first started reading the article I assumed that there would be a tenuous link between this man receiving a transplant and him using medical marijuana. But, as I went on I found it to be a well put together article that made me more and more outraged as the article went on.

The hospitals claiming that a strain of mold SOMETIMES (as in not very frequently at all), found in marijuana, SOMETIMES (there it is again) causes organ rejections. That's completely ludicrous, if this man is using only doctor prescribed marijuana that is cultivated and processed in an environment that meets MEDICAL standards then it shouldn't have any risk of there being this mold on it.

I hope for the best for this gentleman he seems like a very well intentioned person to which a lot of bad things has happened. So HERE,HERE, to him being able to continue to smoke, getting the transplant and becoming a history teacher.

As a medical marijuana user I am APPALLED. Even here in California which overwhelmingly passed legalizing it's medical use, patients can be fired for testing positive. Once again, the agenda of a few subverts the will of the majority. it is time for major changes in this country.

When a pill is prescribed by a doctor...it is deemed okay and normal. When a plant is prescribed it is immorral...

They need to make up there minds. If its okay to smoke it then they should stay on the list for the care they need.

I have one obvious question that neither the article foresaw to answer nor Cherish-Liberty, the 30 yr nurse, addressed. Given the strong addictive nature of tobacco how many people are denied transplants who are smokers? Are they required to wait the several years it would take to go through the 3 to 4 attempts to quit before they are allowed a transplant?

Give em transplant or give-em death! Do they deny alcoholics or cigarette smokers ?

Sounds like they are just trying to cover up for their own mistakes and they are willing to sacrifice this man to get him out of their hair. NO WAY!!!!! We cant let this happen just because of the choices he makes in life or what kind of treatment he wants for HIS BODY!!!!!!
As for being cutting off of a list because of suggesting Medical Marijuana, that disgusts me. Those doctors should be ashamed!

I can't wait until Civil Rights and the United States Constitution mean something again.

They don't want to cure you, they want to treat you until you die.... doctors and hospitals driven by money not healing ...wake up!

I wish he could just get help for his pain. That's all he probably wants and needs. Pointing and blaming and suing won't get him anything but grief and he seems to have enough of that.

There must be someone out there that is smart enough to help him, to cure him, to fix him so that he doesn't have more trouble the older he gets.