Pubdate: Mon, 29 Jun 2009
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2009 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.signonsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: Logan Jenkins

DOCTOR NOT ACCOMPANIED BY CLOUD OF SMOKE

Close your eyes.

Now imagine a garden-variety marijuana doc.

You projected someone goofy, right? Dr. Feel-Good?

Or venal? Dr. Slime-Ball?

Anecdotal evidence abounds that unscrupulous marijuana doctors will 
recommend weed for anyone who claims a malady, genuine or not.

I asked Dr. Bob Blake if the stories were true.

"Oh, God, yes!" he said. "Guaranteed."

Then how could this ER doctor - "highly respected," according to 
Palomar Pomerado Health spokesman Andy Hoang - get involved in the 
demimonde of medical cannabis?

"IT'S A NEW DAY: WE'RE REOPENING OUR SAN DIEGO CLINIC!!!!"

The bulletin atop Medical Marijuana of San Diego's Web site reflects, 
one gathers, the euphoria of the cannabis community.

"Two years ago," Blake writes on his home page, "Medical Marijuana of 
San Diego temporarily relocated to the San Diego/Orange County border 
because there were no dispensaries or co-ops available to supply 
medical marijuana to our patients in San Diego County, the Board of 
Supervisors refused to implement the (medical) marijuana laws, and 
the district attorney served notice that all dispensaries were to close."

During this two-year dark age, as county supervisors remained hostile 
to the permissive state law, Medical Marijuana's local patients were 
forced to drive to Orange County to receive their prescriptions. And then

"With the new Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement that the 
federal government would leave medical marijuana alone and only go 
after those breaking both federal and state laws, the climate 
changed. When the Supreme Court refused to hear the final appeal of 
San Diego County, dispensaries started opening up all over San Diego."

As it happens, Medical Marijuana of San Diego, one of an estimated 20 
county doctor's offices that prescribe cannabis, is rebounding from 
its own rough brush with the law.

In 2006, Drug Enforcement Administration agents conducted a sting at 
the clinic. A Medical Board of California investigation determined 
that Dr. Alfonso Jimenez, an osteopath, had recommended marijuana 
without adequate exams. In April, Jimenez lost his license to 
practice medicine.

This left up to 10,000 of Jimenez's cannabis patients with invalid 
prescriptions. The only way to save the practice was to put it in the 
hands of a doctor in good standing.

Enter Dr. Blake. For 20 years, Blake was the chair of Pomerado 
Hospital's Emergency Department. For two years in the mid-1990s, he 
was the hospital's chief of staff.

"Before losing his license, Dr. Jimenez turned over your care to me," 
Blake assures patients on his Web site. "I stand behind EVERY 
patient's letter of recommendation for medical marijuana written by 
Dr. Jimenez."

Blake's nearing 60, but the tan, lean vegetarian looks 50 in baggy 
shorts, T-shirt and sandals as he sips iced tea at the Pannikin, 
Leucadia's coffee hangout.

He grew up in North Park, went to St. Augustine High School and spent 
his free time gliding over the water - as a sailor and a surfer - and 
underneath as a diver. To stay in shape, he swims two miles most 
every day, from Swami's to F Street and back.

After graduating from UC Irvine's medical school, Blake went into 
emergency medicine.

In 2005, he'd had enough of the pressure and long hours. He started 
looking for a niche where he could use his skill at sizing up 
injuries and dealing with pain.

Around 2000, a family member had become a "chronic pain patient" 
after a car accident. Having explored the usual "modalities," a 
colleague of Blake's suggested cannabis.

His relative started out with two doses of cannabis a week - and then 
two a month. "The metabolites continue to work after the euphoria is 
gone," Blake said. Unlike opiates, "the benefits for long-term pain 
management are excellent."

He thought about working with medical marijuana right after quitting 
Pomerado, but "I didn't feel like getting in the middle of the firestorm."

Early this year, however, as the legal climate was shifting, Blake 
contacted Jimenez and began an internship to learn the hemp ropes, so to speak.

Then Jimenez was stripped of his license. Taking a deep breath, Blake 
plunged. "I had no idea what I was entering," he said of the 
challenges of assuming a stigmatized practice.

I asked him if his friends and former associates were taken aback at 
his offbeat course. He said no, not at all. (That's one advantage of 
living in Leucadia, I suppose.)

Still, he's leery of the counterculture image of medical marijuana. 
He said he'd like to tone down the Web site and advertising he 
inherited from the flamboyantly hip Jimenez.

Blake's looking for an office in Mission Valley to add to his space 
in Dana Point. He says he spends about 15 minutes with patients - as 
much as a half an hour with new ones. He insists upon medical records 
to back up claims of distress, whether mental or physical.

If anyone showed him a marijuana bud in his office, he'd kick the 
person out. He practices medicine in a separate universe from 
dispensaries or co-ops.

Though a strong advocate of cannabis as a pain reliever, Blake says 
he opposes legislation to legalize the drug.

The country's mainstream isn't ready for such a radical change, he 
says. He worries about traffic safety if pot were legal.

Besides, it would be bad for business, he says with a smile. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake