Originally Posted May 5, 2008
Analysis by Richard Cowan
Last Friday, MarijuanaNews.com reported that Seattle musician Timothy Garon died after being denied a liver transplant because he used medical cannabis with the approval of his doctor in Washington State.
I did not know Mr. Garon, but my friend, Douglas Hiatt the great Seattle attorney, who did so much to save Steve Tuck’s life, fought to get Garon on the waiting list.
Another good friend, Dr. Francis Podrebarac, who help write the Washington State medical cannabis law, expressed his regret that the “medical profession is still putting politics ahead of the patients.”
Indeed, there is absolutely no medical justification for it, and this outrage is hardly unique.
From 1998, see
Patient Who Was Denied Liver Transplant For Using Medical Marijuana Dies — How Lies Kill — 2 articles
and from 2001, see
Over the years that I have been following the issue, I have known a number of other victims of this policy, but it is even worse than it sounds.
There is actually long waiting list for liver transplants, so patients are forced to stop using cannabis even to get on the list, and consequently they have to endure the very unpleasant effects of liver failure without the palliative benefits of cannabis – and without any guarantee of getting a liver.
But it is even worse than it sounds, because cannabis seems to slow the deterioration of the liver, just as it slows the progression of many other diseases, so the patients die sooner after suffering more.
But again it gets even worse: “Tylenol May Cause Serious Liver Damage” : “If you take Tylenol for four days as directed you may be at risk of liver damage, says a new study. Tylenol has been on the market for decades. Previous studies had shown that Tylenol in combination with hydrocodone caused liver damage - experts had thought the liver toxicity was associated with hydrocodone. This new study clearly shows that the Tylenol poses the risk, rather than the hydrocodone.”
See
Two Days After The Medical Marijuana Initiatives
Candidates for liver transplants are just one of many victims of the policy of placing the prohibitionist ideology ahead of the needs of the patients.
Last Thursday, we looked at the need for medical cannabis in Africa and elsewhere in the Third world, especially for the poorest of the poor people with AIDS.
Of course, people with AIDS all over the world are also among those who need medical cannabis the most.
If they live in Illinois, they may have to get on another sort of waiting list. The revised version of the MPP sponsored bill “has a sunset clause of three years and limits the number of qualifying patients to 1,200.”
According to the Illinois department of Public Heath , there were over 1,400 new cases of AIDS diagnosed in the state in 2004. So there are more new AIDS cases every year than there are slots for medical cannabis!
And as “RadicalRuss.com” reported on the stash.norml.org, there are also “29,000 Illinoisans diagnosed with cancer each year, and that’s just one of the conditions.”
Russ also points out “Illinois: 13,000,000 pop., 1,200 patient limit = ~9 per 100K
Oregon: 3,000,000 pop., 20,000 patients and counting = ~666 per 100K”
All of the changes in the proposed Illinois bill, including limiting “caregivers” to just one patient were forced by law enforcement.
Incredibly, MPP concludes its report on this outrage with the statement: “Many thanks to law enforcement leaders for helping craft a better bill.”
There may be times when we are forced to compromise, but there is never an excuse for thanking the oppressors of the sick and dying.
On the other hand, there are people who truly are standing up for freedom. Sunday’s Seattle Times carried a great report, Rally calls for end to pot “prohibition”
Notice that they actually used the word “prohibition” – even though they put it quotation marks!
The article concluded, “Margaret Denny, 57, rode in a wheelchair that her son had decorated with jail bars. She is fighting a drug-possession charge after an arrest at her Maple Valley home last October. She said the police found more pot in her possession than she’s allowed with her medical authorization. They took her to jail in an ambulance.
She said a 1979 car accident left her suffering from various, painful problems with her hip and foot.
“I just think, what a sad waste of the taxpayers’ money, putting the sick and the dying in jail or trying to arrest them,” she said.
It is worse than a waste of money. It is a waste of freedom, and a waste of our souls.
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good points. When a citizen knows justice, perhaps a take to arms in defense of justice is in order. perhaps anything less is an injustice. perhaps.