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.