A new federally funded study examining the possible risks of organ donation by marijuana users found no indication that recent cannabis use increases the likelihood of significant side effects in the year immediately after a transplant—even as many healthcare providers continue to restrict transplants to cannabis consumers.
Findings of the research, which looked at rates of infections, transplant failures and deaths among recipients, “suggest that organs from donors with a history of recent marijuana use do not pose significant infectious risks in the early posttransplant period.”
“Despite concern that donor exposure to marijuana increases the risk of fungal infection in recipients, our study found that a donor history of marijuana use did not increase (1) the likelihood of donor culture positivity (including respiratory cultures), or (2) the risk of early recipient bacterial or fungal infection, graft failure, or death posttransplant,” authors wrote. “Even when evaluating only lung recipients, there remained no association between donor marijuana use and the risk of posttransplant infection.”
As more states have legalized marijuana, reported rates of use among adults have also risen, notes the new study, published late last month in the American Journal of Transplantation. “It is likely that a growing proportion of deceased organ donors have a history of marijuana use, as well,” it says, “though this metric has not been specifically reported.”
Hellbound and Down 