organ transplant Archives

Maine Committee Passes Legislation to Prevent Medical Marijuana Patients from Being Denied Organ Transplants

April 10, 2017April 10, 2017

A key committee in Maine has given approval to legislation designed to protect medical cannabis patients from being denied organ transplants.

LD 764 has been given approval by the Join Standing Committee on Health and Human Services with a close 7 to 6 vote. According to its summary, “This bill prohibits the medical use of marijuana from being the sole disqualifying factor in determining a person’s suitability for receiving an anatomical gift.” The measure was filed by State Representative Deborah Sanderson (R) along with eight bipartisan cosponsors.

Below is the full text of the one-page measure:

Study: Cannabidiol May Treat Autoimmune Myocarditis and Other Autoimmune Disorders

January 21, 2016January 20, 2016

Myocarditis is a major cause of heart failure and sudden cardiac death in young adults and adolescents, with many cases of myocarditis associated with autoimmune processes. Now, a new study published this month by the journal Molecular Medicine, has found that the cannabis compound cannabidiol is an effective treatment option for autoimmune myocarditis and potentially other autoimmune disorders.

Conventional immunosuppressive therapies often provide unsatisfactory results and are “associated with adverse toxicities during the treatment of autoimmune myocarditis”, states the study’s abstract. Cannabidiol (CBD), howevever, is a “non-psychoactive constituent of Marijuana which exerts antiinflammatory effects independent from classical cannabinoid receptors”.

California Senate Committee Unanimously Passes Bill to Prohibit Patients from being Denied Organ Transplants

June 18, 2015

California’s Senate Health Committee has unanimously passed a bill that would prohibit medical cannabis patients from being denied organ transplants based on their cannabis use, or their status as a qualified patient. The proposal has already passed the state’s full Assembly with a 52 to 8 vote.

Specifically, Assembly Bill 258 will ensure that “A hospital, physician and surgeon, procurement organization, or other person shall not determine the ultimate recipient of an anatomical gift based solely upon a potential recipient’s status as a qualified patient… or based solely on a positive test for the use of medical marijuana by a potential recipient who is a qualified patient.”