MEDICAL MARIJUANA CARDS FALSELY ISSUED

Officials Find Three Of 2,200 Or So Registrations Were Granted After A
Doctor's Signature Is Apparently Forged By Patients

An internal review of the state's medical marijuana program has found
that the Oregon Health Division failed to follow its own rules for
verifying applications from patients.

Officials ordered the review after discovering three cases in which
patients apparently forged a doctor's signature.

The 2-year-old medical marijuana program is understaffed, regularly
misses its 30-day deadline for processing applications and has no
clear procedure for denying incomplete applications, the internal
management review found.

"Oregonians expect our agency's services to meet the highest
standards," said Bobby S. Mink, director of the Oregon Department of
Human Services, in releasing the review Monday. "Unfortunately, our
management of this program has fallen short of this goal."

Health officials last month suspended three registration cards for
legal use of medical marijuana after finding that the doctor's
signature on the patients' applications had been forged. It was the
first suspension under Oregon's Medical Marijuana Act, which was
approved by Oregon voters in November 1998.

Four other applications carrying the same forged signature were caught
before cards were issued to patients. All seven cases have been
turned over the Oregon State Police.

>From now on, every application will be verified in writing with the
patient's physician, Mink said. He also pledged to eliminate the
backlog of applications by beefing up staff. Gov. John Kitzhaber's
proposed budget adds one permanent full-time staff member to the
medical marijuana program's current support staff of one temporary
half-time person.

Kelly Paige, manager of the medical marijuana program, has been
reassigned temporarily to another job in the Health Division, as is
customary during an internal management investigation. Mink declined
to say whether she would return to her old job but said she would
continue working for the Health Division.

About 2,200 patients have received registration cards under Oregon's
medical marijuana program. Each application requires a doctor's
signature to verify that the patient has a condition covered by the
law, such as cancer, glaucoma, AIDS or severe pain. About 560 doctors
have signed such requests.

Staff members are required to confirm, by telephone or letter, the
doctor's signature. That didn't happen until too late in the three
cases in which cards have now been revoked, officials said.

The first forgery was detected in February, when a staff member
noticed that the handwriting of the doctor's on-file signature did not
match the signature on the patient's application. The staff member
called the doctor, who said he never signed a request for that
particular patient.