Pubdate: Sat, 25 Aug 2001
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright: 2001 Associated Press

ORE. DOCTOR DEFENDS LIBERAL PRESCRIPTIONS FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

PORTLAND, Ore. - Dozens of sick people line up each week at clinics around 
Oregon run by an elderly physician, hoping he will sign an application that 
will allow them to smoke marijuana to ease their suffering.

"I already know what my doctor thinks about pot," 26-year-old Jack Blevins 
told Dr. Philip Leveque at a clinic in Portland. "I don't care what he 
thinks of it."

The doctor then asked Blevins, a former construction worker and tattoo 
artist, a handful of questions about the 1994 car accident that left him 
with severe back pain. Blevins insisted he doesn't like swallowing pills.

Within minutes, Leveque signed a document that will allow him to smoke pot 
instead.

"You're cured," the doctor laughed.

Leveque, an osteopath from Molalla, has signed more applications for 
medical marijuana than any other Oregon doctor - about 935, or 40 percent 
of the 2,351 that have been approved by doctors.

The reams of documents signed by Leveque have drawn the scrutiny of the 
state Board of Medical Examiners, which is investigating him for allegedly 
failing to obtain sufficient medical information about patients before 
signing their marijuana applications.

Leveque says he approves applications if he is convinced a patient has a 
condition such as AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis or glaucoma, as allowed 
under Oregon's voter-approved Medical Marijuana Act.

He admits he turns few people away.

Medical records - or any kind of written proof that a patient is suffering 
- - aren't required by Leveque. He doesn't even see all applicants in person, 
often fielding phone calls from prospective patients, querying them about 
their illness, signing a marijuana application for them and sending it off 
to state authorities.

In response to his practices, state health officials decided that doctors 
will have to follow more rigorous rules before signing marijuana applications.

In an Aug. 10 statement, they said a single doctor - whom they declined to 
name - was responsible for signing the lion's share of the medical 
marijuana applications.

"The large number of cases makes us question whether this person could 
truly qualify as the attending physician for all of these patients," Grant 
Higginson, state health officer with the Oregon Department of Human 
Services, said in the statement.

"One of the most basic requirements is that the patient have support for 
their use of medical marijuana from their doctor," Higginson said.

He also said that because of that one doctor, the board would now require 
physicians who sign off on behalf of a patient to maintain an up-to-date 
medical file for the patient, perform a physical and create a treatment plan.

Jim Sellars, a spokesman for the Department of Human Services, said about 
690 marijuana applications signed by a single doctor - whom he wouldn't 
identify - had been put on hold once officials realized that one doctor had 
approved them all.

This past week, officials demanded that the doctor turn over medical 
records for all of those patients before applications would be processed, 
Sellars said.

For his part, Leveque says he is providing a necessary service that most 
Oregon doctors are reluctant to provide, enabling ailing people to obtain 
what they say is the best means for alleviating their pain.

"Doctors all over the state are refusing to do this," the white-haired 
World War II combat veteran said.

He said he will continue to sign medical marijuana applications without 
seeing patients in person unless state health officials specifically order 
him to stop.

Leveque says the medical board notified him in April that he was under 
investigation after a complaint that he had helped patients register for 
medical marijuana "despite their medical and addiction history."

Specifically, Leveque said he is accused of authorizing a medical marijuana 
card for a Brookings teen-ager without first examining her, diagnosing her 
condition, charting her care or conferring with any of her other providers.

Another patient he signed for was allegedly addicted to cocaine and 
methamphetamines.

Leveque contends the drug-addicted woman he approved for marijuana told him 
she suffered from a painful "severe sinus dysfunction" that was unrelieved 
by surgery or medical treatment. He says the patient told him that only 
marijuana provided any help.

"What am I supposed to do? Use thumb screws on these people?" he says of 
his patients.

State health officials also discovered seven cases in which Leveque's 
signature was forged on marijuana applications. Leveque said he was able to 
identify the culprit, a stock car racer, to the State Police. No arrests 
have been made, however.

The doctor has been in trouble before. During the 1980s, he was 
investigated for allegedly overprescribing pain medications to patients. In 
1986, he was placed on 10 years' probation for what the board saw as 
improper pain treatment.

Leveque denies that he was abetting addiction by treating chronic pain.

"I'm proud of the fact that I was taking care of chronic pain patients," he 
said. "Other doctors would literally dump them on me."

Leveque is frustrated by the tightened medical marijuana rules.

The Oregon Medical Association also opposes the changes, arguing they will 
force physicians to disclose private patient information.

Still, the group questions Leveque's prolific practice.

"I was flabbergasted that a single physician was responsible for so many 
signatures," said Jim Kronenburg, an OMA spokesman. "Based on the sheer 
volume that he signed off on, there are obviously questions about the 
adequacy of his decision making."

Of Oregon's 6,500 doctors, about 560 have signed marijuana applications 
since the medical marijuana law took effect two years ago. After Leveque, 
the next busiest doctor has signed 71 applications.

There is no limit on the number of medical marijuana applications a doctor 
can sign. All patients need to do is get a doctor's signature on the 
application and send it along with $150 to the state.

Patients can then either grow their own marijuana - up to three mature 
plants and four immature plants - or have a "caregiver" grow it for them.

Oregon is among eight states that allow the use of marijuana as medicine. 
The others are California, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada and 
Colorado.
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