LOCKYER V. MIKURIYA

Tod Mikuriya, MD, the Berkeley-based psychiatrist who has sanctioned
marijuana use by some six thousand Californians in the years since Prop 215
passed, is being accused by the state Medical Board of "unprofessional
conduct" in his handling of 18 cases. A formal accusation was delivered to
Mikuriya's door on Tuesday morning, Aug. 13. Not one of the 18 complaints
was initiated by a patient, says Mikuriya; all were sent to the Board by
cops, sheriffs and DAs resentful of his willingness to let people medicate
with marijuana.

The California Medical Board, which is under the Department of Consumer
Affairs, licenses physicians, surgeons and other "healing arts
practitioners." The Board has 19 members, 12 of whom are MDs. The Medical
Board staff includes investigators (not MDs, although they can consult
"physician experts"), who look into complaints and forward cases to the
Attorney General for legal action. In Mikuriya's case, the AG's "prayer"
is to revoke his license (issued in October, 1963). A hearing will be held
by an Administrative Law Judge, probably some time this winter. Mikuriya
will be represented by his personal attorney, Susan Lea, and by John Fleer,
whose Walnut Creek firm is retained by Norcal Insurance to represent its
physician-clients in appearances before the Medical Board.

Fleer entered the picture last Fall, after the Board had notified Mikuriya
that it was investigating his handling of some 47 patients. (Presumably 29
complaints were found to be without any merit.) "We helped him review his
files, case by case," recalls Fleer. "I've been doing this for 20 years
and I have a feel for whether a doctor has a detailed understanding of a
case. Mikuriya not only had understanding, he had an unusual level of
sympathy for his patients. I'm afraid the Board is holding him to an
artificially high standard."

The case against Mikuriya is being handled by Deputy Attorneys General
Larry Mercer and Jane Zack Simon the #2 and #3 prosecutors of marijuana
cases under former AG Dan Lungren. Soon after the passage of Prop 215
their boss, Senior Deputy AG John Gordnier, sent a memo to the 58 county
DAs asking to be notified of any defendants whose recommendations came from
Mikuriya. Gordnier also offered to help prepare DAs who would be
cross-examining his nemesis.

Mikuriya was also singled out by federal officials Barry McCaffrey, Janet
Reno, Donna Shalala and Alan Leshner (of NIDA) at the infamous Dec. 30,
1996 press conference where they threatened to revoke the licenses of
California physicians who recommended mj. A federal judge subsequently
enjoined their agencies from carrying out the threat; but California seems
to be doing it for them.

"I'm disappointed that Bill Lockyer put Simon and Mercer in position to
carry out Lungren's agenda," says Mikuriya. "Lockyer won many of us over by
saying he'd voted for Prop 215. But if he'd insisted, as Attorney General,
that it be implemented, many more doctors would have been recommending
cannabis to their patients, and those of us who do so appropriately
wouldn't be singled out for persecution."

Mikuriya's colleagues R. Stephen Ellis, MD, of San Francisco and Molly
Fry, MD, of Cool, are currently under investigation by the Medical Board.
William Eidelman of Riverside, MD, had his license suspended after a
hearing this spring. Stephen Banister of Grass Valley by all accounts an
excellent doctor entered into a settlement with the Board in which he
accepted three years' probation with close oversight of his practice, and
agreed to take classes and pay $10,000 to defray the cost of the investigation.

"Investigations targeting doctors who recommend cannabis violate section
11362.5 of the Health & Safety Code," says Mikuriya. "I quote: `No
physician in this state shall be punished, or denied any right or
privilege, for having recommended marijuana to a patient for medical
purposes.'"

Have you heard of the law? (For Bill L.)

Have you heard of the law called Prop 215? Passed by California voters just
saying what we mean Marijuana eases pain and grief There's many a condition
for which it brings relief

The state could not wait to cover up its ears Long-robed judges said the
wording isn't clear The cops and D.A.s held a council of war In secret to
dis-implement the new law

Put heat on the doctors that's the whole strategy Said Attorney General
Lungren then he flew off to DC To meet Cardinal Constantine and Rabbi Alan
Lesh-ner Reno and Shalala like a scene out of MacBeth

It was back in December, 1996 General McCaffrey announced the big fix:
California doctor, your license is at risk Big Janet and the neckless nun
all tsk-tsk-tsk

What were their names, what were their names The docs who believed their
patients claims? What were their names, tell me what were their names The
docs who stood up for the patients?

From up in Crescent City down to San Diego Many a physician had to just
say no unless you got cancer or AIDS better yet a letter of approval could
prove difficult to get.

Paxil and Statins they're so eager to prescribe Viagra and Estrogen
dispensed like a bribe The detail men offer them jaunts to here and there
And the Board never questions their standard of care

But those brave physicians whose plain common sense Leads to respect for
anecdotal evidence Get called Dr Feelgood like it was a bad thing And made
to feel fear every time the doorbell rings

They helped a lot of people in a wide range of pain The data they've
collected should not be in vain Sabotage of research, when's it gonna stop?
The practice of medicine is not up to the cops

What were their names, what were their names The docs who believed their
patients claims? What were their names, tell me what were their names The
docs who stood up for the patients.

No Mistake

President Bush signed a bill August 5 allowing the Colombian military to
use U.S. helicopters including 14 Blackhawks and 19 Hueys and other
weaponry previously earmarked for fighting the "war on drugs" to fight
"organizations designated as terrorist," i.e., the FARC and the National
Liberation Army. The bill also allows 3,000 Colombian "anti-drug" troops
trained by U.S. Special Forces to go into combat against the rebels. (The
anti-drug brigade was previously limited to securing areas for defoliation
missions.)

"There has been a mistake in trying to identify those who are in drugs and
those that are not," said John Walters, Bush's drug czar.

Speaking of "mistakes," a constant litany in "drug-policy-reform" circles
is that the war on drugs is one. Supposedly intelligent NORML members act
nonplused that "we" (by which they mean the government) would waste
countless billions of dollars on incarceration and interdiction efforts
that never have and never can eradicate illicit drug use. They
misunderstand the real goal of the war on drugs, which is to keep the cops
and the military well funded, well staffed, well armed, and poised to act
if and when the poor folks here or abroad might challenge the status
quo. The WOD is a cover for counter-insurgency, as the re-defined U.S.
role in Colombia makes clear.

The big policy change in Colombia took effect amidst well-orchestrated talk
about attacking Iraq. A crude misdirection play? If so, it worked. With
almost no media attention, Bush also signed a bill allocating $6 million
for guarding an Occidental Petroleum pipeline, and more to train Colombian
soldiers in the art of pipeline protection.