Police search cancer patient's hospital room for marijuana

BOLIVAR, Ms. — A stage 4 pancreatic cancer patient at a hospital in central Missouri recorded a now-viral video of officers searching his room for marijuana.

Nolan Sousley says he was trying to get some sleep at Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar when two police officers entered his room. The police officers searched the 52-year-old's room after receiving complaints from a security guard that he smelled marijuana coming from the hospital room.

Officers searching through Sousley's things found nothing.

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Sousley said he had taken THC oil outside of the hospital in order to help him sleep.

"It's just kind of a ... a bad situation where we are kind of caught in the middle of the conflict between what we legally have to do and what the future law is going to be and we're still in that gray area," said Bolivar city attorney Donald Brown.

The hospital issued an apology to Sousley and his family for the ordeal and released this statement: "Respect is part of our core values. Our actions in this recent event did not reflect who we are as an organization. We pride ourselves in providing compassionate care to all patients and we fell short of expectations. We apologize to our patient and his family and friends who were affected by our actions. We are reviewing the incident and will retrain our employees in the core values and the importance of respect and dignity to our patients and the community."

NBC