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Wednesday, February 08, 2017

Contaminated medical marijuana believed to have killed cancer patient

A rare fungal infection has killed a California man undergoing cancer treatment and it’s believed he got it from medical marijuana, CBS Los Angeles reports.

The treatment left the man’s immune system compromised, but his death still surprised doctors because he was relatively young and his cancer was beatable. He was using medical marijuana to fend off the treatment’s effects. After his death, testing of 20 medical marijuana samples from across the state found the vast majority were contaminated with dangerous bacteria and fungi.

“It started with a couple patients that were undergoing very intensive chemotherapy and a stem cell therapy, and those patients were very immune-compromised,” explained Dr. Joseph Tuscano of the University of California, Davis Cancer Center.

The California man was one of those patients who was already in a very serious cancer fight. Then that fight suddenly became much more complicated with a relatively rare but particularly lethal fungal infection.

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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you are terminal it is one thing but marijuana so suppresses the immune system that it becomes counter productive to cancer treatment. Marinol a synthetic version of marijuana available in capsule form is a much better option or Syndros a liquid form.

Anonymous said...

This could have happened anywhere. Marijuana shouldn't be singled out as the culprit. Chemotherapy wreaks havoc on individuals immune systems, thus rendering them compromised. Fungal infections can occur from inhaling normal dirt and/or soil particles on a microscopic level when the immune system is compromised.

Anonymous said...

Marijuana does not suppress the immune system.What the heck is 8:53 talking about?!?!

Anonymous said...

10:04 is correct. It doesn't compromise the immune system.

Marinol is a terrible drug. It was only created to make money.

The problem with this batch was with the grower/processor not drying the product correctly. Healthy plants will not be susceptible to mold or fungi if the humidity is held at correct levels. This was a problem either with the post harvest curing or poor storage thereafter.

Anonymous said...

This is an incident. Negligent grower/processor. Suspend and fine them as you wpuld any other big business. Make them take other classes/training and follow up like healtg inspectors do for restaurants.
Nothing compared to doctor mistakes in operating rooms or nurses mistakes in dosing hospital patients or food contamination or poisoning..

Steve said...

If i grow my own and dry it properly it makes me a criminal, though.

Anonymous said...

This is what happens when we semi-legalize a plant and give licenses to people based on business and political connections rather than knowledge or skill.
Make it 100% legal to grow, possess and consume and you will never have another Marijuana "problem" again.

Anonymous said...

Should be fully legalized. This is a non issue scare tactic, mmj is 100% safe and non toxic

Anonymous said...

Take it from someone who is not only an MD (Cornell) but has a PhD (Harvard) in public health. Marijuana smoking can and does in fact suppress the immune system.

Unknown said...

Making medical marijuana card is very easy in MMjCCC(Medical Marijuana Card Certification Center).