The “war on drugs” claims another one:

A man who was denied a liver transplant largely because he used marijuana with medical approval to ease the symptoms of hepatitis C has died.

Timothy Garon, 56, died Thursday at Bailey-Boushay House, an intensive care nursing center, said his lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, and Alisha Mark, a spokeswoman for Virginia Mason Medical Center, which operates Bailey-Boushay.

His death came a week after a doctor told him a University of Washington Medical Center committee had again denied him a spot on the liver transplant list. The team had previously told him it would not consider placing him on the list until he completed a 60-day drug-treatment class. (emphasis mine)

Clearly he didn’t HAVE 60 days, huh? Dumbasses like this get medical licenses?

The case highlights an ethical consideration for those allocating organs for transplant: whether using marijuana with a doctor’s blessing should be held against a dying patient in need of a transplant.

The Virginia-based United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation’s transplant system, leaves it to individual hospitals to develop criteria for transplant candidates.

At some, people who use “illicit substances” — including medical marijuana, even in the dozen states that allow it — are automatically rejected. At others, patients are given a chance to reapply if they stay clean for six months. Marijuana is illegal under federal law.

Uh, yeah, because all “illicit” substances are the same, and marijuana being the only thing that kept him functional during his last days still made him a junkie in their eyes. Do they turn away alcoholics? And if not, why not?

May this tragedy earn them a huge malpractice suit.