AB 258: Organ transplants: medical marijuana: qualified patients.

Existing law, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, an initiative measure enacted by the approval of Proposition 215 at the November 6, 1996, statewide general election, authorizes the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Existing law enacted by the Legislature requires the establishment of a program for the issuance of identification cards to qualified patients so that they may lawfully use marijuana for medical purposes.

Existing law, the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, regulates the making and distribution of organ donations.

This bill would prohibit a hospital, physician and surgeon, procurement organization, or other person from determining the ultimate recipient of an anatomical gift based solely upon a potential recipients status as a qualified patient, as specified, or based solely upon a positive test for the use of medical marijuana by a potential recipient who is a qualified patient, except to the extent that the qualified patients use of medical marijuana has been found by a physician and surgeon, following a case-by-case evaluation of the potential recipient, to be medically significant to the provision of the anatomical gift. The bill would provide that these provisions shall not be deemed to require referrals or recommendations for, or the performance of, medically inappropriate organ transplants.