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   From: froid@sane.org   
      
   Steve Cummings  wrote in   
   news:t01h9i$26831$45@news.freedyn.de:   
      
   > progressive dope smokers who get knocked up and have kids produce   
   > little boy faggots who think they are girls.   
      
   Dr. Thomas Starzl, the "Father of Transplantation," performed the first   
   successful liver transplant in 1967 while at the University of Colorado.   
   Since then, thousands of similar operations are performed every year, with   
   a record-breaking 9,200 liver transplants executed in 2021.   
      
   But people who use cannabis are often excluded from receiving liver   
   transplants. That might seem odd, given how many people use in the United   
   States; indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates   
   that 18 percent of Americans, or 48.2 million people, used cannabis in   
   2019.   
      
   There is generally no consensus from medical experts on cannabis use and   
   organ transplants, but at least eight states have passed laws making it   
   illegal to deny a transplant solely based on cannabis use. Still, cannabis   
   users are regularly denied transplants elsewhere, with excuses ranging   
   from its legal status to fears that the drug can increase fungal   
   infections or cause the body to reject the new organ.   
      
   Yet the research on liver transplants and survival rates for cannabis   
   users is frustratingly scant. To help get to the bottom of whether these   
   kinds of transplant restrictions have any medical merit, researchers at   
   the University of Alabama at Birmingham compared survival rates for liver   
   transplantees based on their cannabis use. The study enrolled 111 patients   
   who tested positive for cannabis using a urine drug screen during liver   
   transplant evaluations between 2016 and 2021. The patients, who were 75   
   percent male, had many different types of liver disease requiring   
   transplant, including from excessive alcohol use, viruses like hepatitis   
   C, and fatty liver disease. As controls, the study included an additional   
   100 non-marijuana users who had all received liver transplants.   
      
   The researchers, writing in The American Journal of the Medical Sciences,   
   noted that only 32 cannabis-using patients out of the 111 received a liver   
   transplant. The remaining 79 were denied for varying reasons, including   
   insurance or financial issues, with 41 explicitly denied for "continued   
   marijuana use" as one of several non-compliance problems. Only 11 were   
   denied solely for using cannabis.   
      
   The patients' medical records were examined for any complications,   
   including heart, lung and kidney problems, as well as death. They were   
   especially concerned with fungal infections. Invasive fungal infections   
   are some of the most severe complications with liver transplants,   
   especially a fungus called Aspergillus, which can also grow on cannabis   
   plants. The fear is that by ingesting a cannabis product contaminated by   
   Aspergillus, it would complicate the transplant, resulting in failure or   
   death.   
      
   But the authors reported "there was no significant difference in overall   
   mortality between marijuana users and non-users" and using marijuana prior   
   to transplant "was not associated with post-transplant infections or   
   readmissions up to one year post-surgery."   
      
   This study used a small sample size, and it only included patients from   
   one location, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, but previous   
   research has uncovered similar results. A 2021 study in the journal   
   Clinical Transplantation examined waitlist outcomes for 630 cannabis-using   
   patients at University of Michigan and 2060 who reported no cannabis use.   
   Those using cannabis were 33 percent less likely to be listed and   
   experienced longer wait times, which the authors attribute to potential   
   stigma.   
      
   Of the 132 cannabis-using patients who were listed, 83 received a   
   transplant, compared to 306 patients in the control group. Patient   
   survival and rates of graft, which is the body accepting the transplant,   
   were similar in both groups, the authors concluded.   
      
   Even prior to this study, some research has suggested that using cannabis   
   may actually be helpful for transplants. Cannabidiol, or CBD, one of the   
   main drugs in marijuana, has shown some protective benefits for the liver,   
   but much of this research is in rats or mice, less so in humans.   
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)