XPost: ca.politics, alt.politics.usa, alt.politics.radical-left   
   XPost: talk.politics.drugs   
   From: tim.howard@suddenlink.net   
      
   Read this editorial; there are other sources one can find on the   
   internet that also address this issue.  Why would they not give organs   
   to people who use pot?  It sounds like another example of the type of   
   moralizing and shaming that the US has been doing to the most helpless   
   and most in need in our society.  This has been going on since the early   
   90s "family values" era and both major parties are guilty of doing it.   
      
    From the Ventura Co. Star...   
      
   Editorial: Dying over drug politics   
   Past time to resolve conflict   
      
   Thursday, May 22, 2008   
      
   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.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)