By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
With a 7 – 6 vote, Maine’s full legislature gave its approval to LD 764/HP 544, An Act To Limit the Exclusion of a Patient from Eligibility for an Organ Transplant Based on Medical Marijuana Use. Maine is the latest in the growing list of states that are ending the practice of denying medical cannabis users from receiving organ transplants.
The full text of the bill, as posted on mainelegislature.org reads,
“Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 22 MRSA §2423-E, sub-§10 is enacted to read:
10. Receiving an anatomical gift. A qualifying patient’s medical use of marijuana
may not be the sole disqualifying factor in determining the qualifying patient’s
suitability for receiving an anatomical gift. For the purposes of this subsection,
“anatomical gift” has the same meaning as in section 2942, subsection 2.
Summary
This bill prohibits the medical use of marijuana being the sole disqualifying factor in determining a person’s suitability for receiving an anatomical gift.”
In April, the University of Utah Hospital admitted 19-year-old Utah cannabis user Riley Hancey after his lungs collapsed but then denied him a transplant when he tested positive for THC. The hospital has a policy against transplanting organs into patients with active dependencies on alcohol, tobacco, or other illicit substances until the user addresses the issues. Hancey’s parents later transported him to Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia where he underwent a double-lung transplant. He spent 68 days in the facility’s ICU before he passed away after a developing a severe case of pneumonia that turned into a rare lung infection.
Originally filed by Republican State Representative, Deborah Sanderson, and eight bipartisan co-sponsors, LD 764/HP 544 is the second marijuana-related bill to gain passage from Maine’s legislature in the past month. On May 25, both the House and Senate approved LD 243, a bill that would fund the implementation of the state’s recreational cannabis market.
Maine Political Director for the Marijuana Policy Project, David Boyer says, “We hope Governor LePage will give swift approval to this bill so we can begin to see some meaningful progress on establishing Maine’s adult-use marijuana program. In the meantime, the Legislature should allow Maine’s existing medical marijuana businesses to begin serving adults 21 and older.”
Both LD 764/HP 544 and LD 243 now sit at Governor Paul LePage’s desk, awaiting his signature. In the organ transplant bill is passed, Maine would become the 8th state in the nation to adopt legislation protecting the rights of medical marijuana patients in need of a donation.
