Doing the Right Thing, Even If You are Fearful

Fred Gardner CounterPunch.org

Oakland, CA Aug 27, 2005 -- Phil Leveque, the Oregon doctor who unstintingly authorized cannabis use by patients in the early days following legalization -when almost all his colleagues were afraid to do so- has received a bill from the State Board of Medical Examiners to pay for his own prosecution. The bill is for $21,127.10. Leveque's license was suspended for three months in 2002 because he hadn't been conducting physicals (which were not explicitly required) or keeping patients' charts (for security reasons) after mailing them to the office that administers Oregon's card program. The Board created "the Leveque Rule," insisting on physical exams, and Leveque hired a physician's assistant to conduct them when he resumed practice in a clinic setting where record-keeping was meticulous.

His license was suspended again in December 2004, and revoked earlier this year. After a lengthy investigation, the Board ruled that the exams conducted under Leveque's supervision were too perfunctory, and that he had violated the "standard of care" in his treatment of six patients. None of the patients had complained about their care. According to attorney Ann Witte, who is handling Leveque's appeal of the revocation, all the complaints against him came from doctors annoyed that he had enabled their patients to medicate with cannabis.

You'd think the appeal would stay the bill collectors, but no. "If you fail to send payment in full or make other arrangements, we may issue a lien on all of your property, both real and personal. We may then record the lien with your county and/or execute on the warrant. This means we can garnish your wages, your bank accounts, or seize your property to pay the debt in full." Leveque is 82, recently widowed, a World War II combat infantryman with a heroic record. Oregon thanks you, Dr. Leveque!

Leveque thinks that the Board of Medical Examiners, which is dominated by MDs, is biased not just against marijuana but against osteopathy. (Leveque is a doctor of osteopathy with a PhD in pharmacology, which he spent many years teaching at the medical-school level.)

Osteopathic Manipulation Boosts the Endocannabinoid System

The June Journal of the American Ostopathic Association has an article by John McPartland of GW Pharmaceuticals and colleagues suggesting that osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) works via the endocannabinoid system. The researchers conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled study involving 31 subjects, and measured "cannabimimetic effects" with a neuropsychological questionnaire, and measured serum anandamide levels, before and after treatments. Subjects receiving OMT recorded cannabimimetic effects on the questionnaire, and serum anandamide levels increased 168% over pre-treatment levels. Subjects receiving sham manipulation record no changes in the questionnaire or serum anandamide levels.

McPartland et al noted that patients receiving OMT often experience an improved sense of well-being, sedation and euphoria -effects similar to cannabis consumption, and previous studies indicated these psychotropic effects are not elicited by endorphins.

A recent study by Andrea Giuffrida, who contributed to the OMT study, showed that "runner's high" correlated with elevated anandamide and not endorphins, as commonly assumed. Patients receiving chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, and energy healing also experience parallel psychotropic effects. The endocannabinoid system may be mediating a widespread but heretofore unrecognized therapeutic phenomenon.