OAKLAND HEARING TO DECIDE FATE OF POT-PRESCRIBING DOC

The hearing that will determine the fate of a Berkeley psychiatrist who has
prescribed medical marijuana for 7,000 in the last seven years commences in
an Oakland hearing room Wednesday.

Tod Mikuriya, M.D., who began writing prescriptions for the drug after
passage of Prop 215 in 1996, has rejected an offer to settle the Medical
Board of California's unprofessional conduct case against him, leading to
the hearings before Administrative Law Judge Jonathan Lew in Oakland's
State Building, 1515 Clay St.

The hearing is expected to take about a week as the judge hears a
file-by-file review of Mikuriya's treatment of the 17 patients named by the
Board in its Accusation.

None of the patients who allegedly received sub-standard care from Mikuriya
has filed or expressed a complaint against him (not counting an undercover
narcotics officer from Sonoma County, whose name was added to the complaint
after Mikuriya nixed the settlement offer).

All the patients named in the Board's accusation had been self-medicating
with cannabis before consulting Mikuriya. Many have reported that Mikuriya
was the first and only doctor with whom they could discuss the fact that
they'd been using marijuana medicinally.

The complaints against Dr. Mikuriya have all come from rural county
district attorneys and sheriffs who, according to attorney Bill Simpich,
"resented Tod's courage in issuing approvals under Health and Safety Code
section 11362.5."

Mikuriya is charged with violating a "standard of care" that the Medical
Board has never defined with respect to doctors who approve their patients'
cannabis use. Ironically, Mikuriya has been urging the Board to adopt
specific standards with respect to cannabis approvals since 1996. The Board
contends that such approvals are equivalent to prescriptions for "dangerous
drugs."

The prosecution-the Attorney General's office, on behalf of the Medical
Board-will call an expert witness employed by the Board, Tracy Duskin,
M.D., who has reviewed the 17 patients' files (which were obtained by
subpoena). Duskin will explain why, in her opinion, Mikuriya failed each of
them. The defense will call its own expert, Phillip Denney, M.D., a family
doctor from Loomis, to explain why Mikuriya was able to make a valid
medical judgment in each case.

All documents relevant to the case except the patients' records can be
found on -- http://www.mikuriya.com/ -- including the final settlement
offer from the state Medical Board that Mikuriya rejected.