Norman Smith: Cancer Patient Taken Off Of Liver Transplant List Because of Medical Marijuana Use

Huffington Post | Kathleen Miles

63-year-old Norman Smith, who was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer in 2009, was placed on the transplant list at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center last year as his only hope of survival. But in February, he was removed from the list. The reason? He was taking the medication his oncologist has prescribed for him: medical marijuana.

As medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) reports, Smith's oncologist, Dr. Steven Miles, had prescribed his patient marijuana to deal with the side affects of chemotherapy and the pain from a back surgery.

And yet, doctors took Smith off of the list because he was using marijuana and did not show up for a drug test. To go back to the bottom of the list, Smith must abstain from marijuana use for six months, undergo random drug tests and receive counseling, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Dr. Steven D. Colquhoun, the director of Cedars-Sinai's Liver Transplant Program, sent a letter to Smith in May saying that the liver transplant center "must consider issues of substance abuse seriously since it does often play a role in the evolution of diseases that may require transplantation, and may adversely impact a new organ after a transplant."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/05/norman-smith-cancer_n_1130619.html

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