Hurting Dr. Feelgood

How Oregon punished a doctor for legally recommending medical marijuana

David Wallis | May 7, 2002

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Reason: Pot helps people concentrate?

Leveque: Well, I guess so. It's also an excellent anti-anxiety drug.

Reason: Can you tell any difference between patients seeking medical marijuana and your other patients?

Leveque: These people are sicker, more disabled, more destitute than any patients that I saw in my regular medical practice.

Reason: But if some of your patients are in fact suckering you, do you care?

Leveque: Absolutely. I am deathly afraid of ringers being thrown at me by [regulators], and I am very, very cautious. It's just like the question, "How do porcupines make love?" Very carefully. I know that these people are out to get me.

Reason: So why take the risk?

Leveque: My Hippocratic Oath requires that I take care of my patients. And if marijuana is the way to take care of my patients, that's what I'm going to do. Any doctor who will not sign an application for medical marijuana is [guilty] of malpractice.

Reason: Did you ever expect to become a political advocate?

Leveque: I have a spinal cord injury myself. I had prostate surgery about 11 years ago, and they gave me too much spinal anesthesia, damaging my nerves going to my feet and tailbone. My feet are on fire all the time. When you walk you feel pressure. When I walk I feel fire. And when I sit down--fire. I have pain 24 hours a day. The only way I can escape from it is by taking a triple dose of sleeping pills at bedtime.

Reason: Why not smoke pot for your pain?

Leveque: If I did I would have a target on my front and back, and every cop in Oregon would be hassling the hell out of me. About 12 years ago, one of my smart-aleck sons gave me a loaded bong for Christmas and dared me to light it up. I took a couple of hits off the damn thing, I don't know if I had some bad grass, but I told him, "What do you see in this stuff, anyhow?"