Timothy Garon suffers a horrible disease.  He deserves our sympathy.  But, just maybe, he doesn't deserve a new liver.

That was the conclusion I drew from this Associated Press piece on Garon and the difficulties medical marijuana users face in obtaining organ transplants, and I wonder why the writer didn't draw the same conclusion.

The story, as written, overwhelmingly promotes the view that medical marijuana is like any other prescription drug, and it's only because of antiquated laws, outdated morals, hidebound bureaucracy, physician misunderstanding, and heartless insurance companies that people like Garon don't get new livers.

But buried within the story are clues as to why Garon isn't getting an organ:

• "Garon believes he got hepatitis by sharing needles with "speed freaks" as a teenager."
• He's facing charges for "manufacturing" marijuana, indicating he grew and possessed rather a lot;
• Organ transplant recipients are required to take immunosuppressant drugs, which subject them to a higher risk of disease from, among other things, the molds that infest marijuana or any other smoked leaf; and
  
• Garon was a recreational marijuana smoker before he was a medical marijuana smoker.

Not mentioned in the story, but like it or not true, is that patients lie to their physicians when its in their interests to do so (and while I'll grant that Garon isn't lying when he says that marijuana is the only drug he's used in years, physicians on the transplant committee may not), and that if Garon doesn't get a liver, some other transplant candidate does.  Some patient who isn't a former speedfreak and current drug user facing charges for possession of a helluva lot of marijuana.  In other words, some hypothetical patient who's, all things being equal, more likely to be able to use one of the few donated livers that become available far longer than a hypothetical patient fitting Garon's profile.

The AP missed a chance to deliver a powerful story about the difficulties and tragedies of triage in a limited market for organ transplants, in favor of a "war on drugs is bad" cookie cutter template.

Via The Agitator, a bigger, better, and smarter blogger than I'll ever be, who in this case unfortunately phrases things even more grossly than does the AP.

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