http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/17/hosp... /

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles has denied a liver transplant to a patient with inoperable liver cancer because he uses medical marijuana. But the marijuana was prescribed by the very same hospital, according to the advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA).

Sixty-three year-old Norman B. Smith was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer in 2009. His oncologist at Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Steven Miles, approved of his medical marijuana use as a means to deal with the effects of chemotherapy and pain from an unrelated back surgery.

In September 2010, Smith became eligible for a liver transplant, but after testing positive for marijuana in February he was removed from the transplant list due to non-compliance with the hospital’s substance abuse contract. Smith was within two months of receiving a transplant before he was de-listed.

...In 2008, a medical marijuana patient from Seattle died after being denied a liver transplant by the University of Washington Medical Center. Less than a year later, another medical marijuana patient from Big Island died at Hilo Hospital after being denied a liver transplant.

The use of cannabis is one of the best ways to alleviate side-effects from cancer therapy. Yet, because of the refusal of the DEA to admit the medicinal value of cannabis, those who try to stay alive - to keep their meds down, to keep from wasting away - are treated as criminals.

What is criminal is the current law.

In addition to the three cancer patients noted here, Peter McWilliams' story is another example of the failure of the DEA to do what is right for the American people.

We cannot wait for Congress to act. Congress is ineffectual unless you're a corporation that wants a tax break. Rescheduling of cannabis is something the Dept. of Justice can do and should do because it is a gross miscarriage of justice for cancer patients to be denied care because of law based upon lies.