# Medical MJ patient denied kidney transplant **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 21, 2008, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-mj-patient-denied-kidney-transplant/450043 "2008-05-21T00:46:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-mj-patient-denied-kidney-transplant/450043/21 "2008-05-22T05:52:27Z")
[QUOTE=BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed] Because it’s a prescribed drug that hasn’t been shown to have any side effects in terms of how likely he’ll be to survive. My point is that if there were an anti-nausea drug that wasn’t weed and had the same lack of side effects, the committee wouldn’t think twice about how it affects his qualification for the list. But since it’s the big scary mareajewwanna, the guy’s an addict and isn’t as likely to survive. [/QUOTE] It’s a prescribed drug _that is smoked_. Smoking anything can seriously fuck up recovery from a transplant and potentially harm the organ. If he were taking a different anti-nausea drug, we could look it up and see if it’s contraindicated. Many probably are. > [@](#): > > And I’m still wondering if anyone has any information about alcohol and eligibility for transplant lists. [This](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11084066) is an interesting abstract of a paper which questions the practice of pushing alcoholic transplant candidates back on the list after a relapse. And the UK Liver Transplant Group said this about it- > [@](#): > > CONTRA-INDICATIONS TO LISTING > It was agreed that there were several factors, each of which, precluded listing for a > transplant because a poor outcome for the graft was likely. > > 1. Alcoholic hepatitis- clinical syndrome of jaundice, coagulopathy rather than > histological diagnosis > > 2. Repetitive episodes (more than 2) of non-compliance with medical care where > there was not a satisfactory explanation. This should not be confined to > management of their liver disease. > > 3. Return to drinking following full professional assessment and advice (this > includes permanent removal from the list if found to be drinking while listed) > > 4. Current illicit drug use (except occasional cannabis use) > > Use of predictors to identify patients who are liable to drink following transplant was > not considered appropriate at present because of the weak, inconsistent evidence base > and the fact that most patients who drink following transplantation do so without > harm. It was agreed that further evidence was required, with a UK cohort, to identify > factors that reliably predicted a poor outcome in terms of graft function and survival. [This paper](http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CXH/is_3_27/ai_n6357653/pg_7) from 2003 also questions the 6 month abstinence from alcohol requirement, saying in part that perhaps a more individualized method should be used- > [@](#): > > As an alternative to the 6-month abstinence requirement for predicting abstinence after OLT, Yates and colleagues (1998) proposed a High Risk Alcoholism Relapse (HRAR) scale, which is based on the patient’s history of heavy drinking, usual number of drinks, and number of prior alcoholism inpatient treatment episodes. Initial studies have demonstrated that patients with low HRAR scores had a low relapse rate and could be deemed eligible for transplant without a pre-OLT 6-month period of abstinence (Yates et al. 1998). A subsequent study by the same research group, however, showed that the HRAR scale had little ability to predict continued sobriety after OLT (DiMartini et al. 2000). So I guess currently, depending on where you are, you are not eligible if you are actively drinking, and you might be eligible if you are currently sober. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-mj-patient-denied-kidney-transplant/450043.md?page=1)