We are all human beings stuck on this planet together. To do this successfully, a certain level of compassion and empathy has to be the norm in society.

Sixty-three year old medical marijuana patient Norman Smith is finding little compassion or empathy from the transplant team at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Doctors there are denying Norman – who has inoperable liver cancer – a liver transplant because of his medical cannabis use.

According to Americans for Safe Access, “Smith is not the only medical marijuana patient in the U.S. being denied a transplant. At least one other Cedars-Sinai patient reported to ASA in 2008 that they had been kicked off the transplant list because of their legal medical marijuana use. Over the past four years, ASA has received numerous reports of patients being purged from transplant lists across California, as well as in other medical marijuana states like Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. In 2008, Seattle resident and medical marijuana patient Timothy Garon died after being denied a liver transplant by the University of Washington Medical Center. A year later, in 2009, Big Island resident and medical marijuana patient Kimberly Reyes died at Hilo Hospital after being denied a liver transplant.”

One has to wonder whether this is just a lack of compassion or whether there is something more sinister at work. After all, who gains if medical marijuana patients are forced off their medication of choice and thrown back to the land of prescription pills and treatments?

- Joe Klare

And be sure to check out our Open Letter on Behalf of 30 Million Cannabis Users and join us in our fight!