Doctor plans appeal for license.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

Barring a successful appeal, Dr. Phillip Leveque's medical career - most notable for a short, storied and highly controversial medical marijuana practice - is over.

State regulators have revoked the medical license of the 81-year-old osteopath from Molalla, and the nearly 4,000 patients for whom he has signed medical marijuana applications are on the lookout for other doctors willing to do the same.

"For sure, there have been other doctors to step up to the plate, but not enough," said Todd Dalotto, president of the Compassion Center in Eugene. "Clearly there is a problem with getting enough doctors to sign for patients."

In October, the Board of Medical Examiners revoked Leveque's license to practice medicine in Oregon, reprimanded him and fined him $5,000, said Kathleen Haley, the board's executive director. He can apply to get his license back in two years, she said. Leveque has until Dec. 15 to file an appeal, and he said he intends to do so.

The Compassion Center and other groups, such as Voter Power and the Hemp and Cannabis Foundation in Portland and the Alternative Medicine Outreach Program in Roseburg, hold clinics at which doctors examine patients and sign applications.

As of Oct. 1, 1,496 doctors have signed medical marijuana applications for 9,758 patients, according to the state Oregon Medical Marijuana Program.

It's unlikely that any will achieve the notoriety Leveque did in the five years he spent signing applications.

Not long after Oregon's ground-breaking medical marijuana law took effect in 1999, word spread among advocates about a semiretired osteopath who, unlike many Oregon doctors, had no qualms about signing applications for patients.

Leveque soon became the doctor to see. Sometimes he signed applications for far-flung or disabled patients without meeting them.

A complaint about his practice drew the attention of the Board of Medical Examiners, which in May 2002 suspended his license for 90 days, fined him $5,000 and placed him on 10 years' probation. It was the second time he had run afoul of the medical regulators: In the 1980s, he was disciplined for improper pain treatment.

After serving his punishment, Leveque resumed his practice, working with Voter Power and other advocacy groups. He traveled up and down the Interstate 5 corridor, seeing patients at clinics held in hotel ballrooms and signing their applications after a physical exam conducted by a nurse-practitioner.

His photograph appeared in ads in alternative newspapers under the headline, `Dr. Leveque says, `Cannabis gives the best relief.' '

Then last March, the Board of Medical Examiners again suspended his license, saying he posed "an imminent risk" to his patients.

The board concluded that he was "grossly negligent" in evaluating certain patients for the medical marijuana program. Specifically, the board said he approved cards for patients with psychiatric disorders and prior histories of drug addiction for whom marijuana was not appropriate.

A World War II combat veteran, he says the board wrongly "stomped all over me" for failing to make specific diagnoses of his patients.

"Please understand me - I'm not paranoid," he said. "I know these people have been out to get me from the word go."

Leveque said that before signing applications, he would review patients' medical records and confirm the diagnosis made by other doctors, which is what he believed his previous order from the Board of Medical Examiners required him to do.

"Trying to make believe I'm a cancer specialist or an HIV specialist is totally fallacious," he said. "I have to rely on previous physicians' records, and most frequently, they are specialists in whatever that condition might be."

Leveque is still doing what he can to help his patients, working as a medical records clerk, and relishing his 15 minutes of fame.

`My agent is trying to get me on `The Montel Williams Show,' ' he said.