MONROEVILLE, Pa. —
Records show some Pennsylvania doctors approve tens of thousands of medical marijuana cards every year.
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Some of those doctors have disciplinary records with the state Board of Medicine.
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Records obtained through a Right to Know request show Dr. Roxanne Rick of Monroeville approved more than 27,000 marijuana cards in less than five years.
Action News Investigates ran those numbers by Dr. Libby Stout, a psychiatrist who studies medical marijuana.
“Nobody recommends any medication with those kind of numbers,” Stout said.
Reached by phone, Rick said she did not want to do an interview. Before ending the call, she said the number of cards issued is not relevant to medical marijuana. She also said she is not really treating patients.
“That is so wrong. How can you make a recommendation and you're not treating patients?” Stout said.
State law requires doctors to certify a patient has one of 23 conditions to qualify for a medical marijuana card. Doctors need state Health Department approval to be in the program.
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Doctors charge typically charge $150 to $200 dollars to evaluate a patient. The law has no limits on the number of cards doctors can issue.
Action News Investigates found a Philadelphia doctor issued more than 43,000 cards. Two other doctors in Eastern Pennsylvania wrote more than 30,000 each.
Action News Investigates asked state Health Secretary Dr. Debra Bogen, who oversees the medical marijuana program, if she had any concerns about those numbers.
“Different physicians will have different numbers of patients depending on their practices,” Bogen said.
Asked if she, as a pediatrician, would want to see 10,000 patients per year, Bogen said, “I can't comment on that number now.”
State records show Rick began certifying medical marijuana patients in 2019, the same year her medical license was fully restored after a 16-year suspension and probation period.
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In 2003, the state medical board suspended Rick's license after she pleaded guilty to federal charges of drug distribution and possession with intent to distribute. She was sentenced to nearly five years in prison.
According to court records, a Pittsburgh police officer was her "muscle" or enforcer for selling drugs. He was also convicted.
“It's very concerning,” Stuyt said.
Rick said her ability to issue marijuana certificates is "not pertinent to any past disciplinary history."
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She also said, "We don't touch products. We don't recommend products."Rick is not the only marijuana doctor with a disciplinary record.
Dr. Vera Sherman issues marijuana cards from an office in Homestead. She also sells CBD products. Records show she did about 2,500 certificates in six years.In 2019, the state medical board found Sherman gave opioids to multiple patients without obtaining a drug screen or documenting their response to other medications. One patient died. Sherman contested the findings, but the board fined her $4,000.The mother of the patient who died, Nicholas Classic, sued Sherman and other physicians for malpractice. Sherman and the other doctors denied the allegations. The case was settled.Reached by phone, Sherman told Action News Investigates, "Back then everyone was overprescribing" because "there was no guidance from the CDC." She said her patients "came in at high doses. I decreased the doses."In 2001, the medical board suspended the license of Dr. Marcellus Boggs for prescribing methadone to a heroin addict without keeping any records. His license was reinstated in 2004. He has approved more than 18,000 marijuana cards.When Action News Investigates asked Boggs about his disciplinary record, he said, "It's nothing to be ashamed of. It's part of the practice of medicine.”
Bogen said the state reviews physician backgrounds before approving them for the medical marijuana program.
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Asked if she had any concerns about doctors with a drug-related disciplinary history in the program, Bogen said, “I can't talk about individual physicians, and I don't have specific examples. But all I can tell you is the process that we go through to certify physicians is a rigorous process that includes a review of their experience.”
We shared our findings with Luke Niforatos of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group that opposes legalization of marijuana.
“I think it just gets at what we all know, which is that this is a farce of a program. And there's a lot of sketchy people that participate in it,” Niforatos said.
Attorney Patrick Nightingale advocates for marijuana legalization.“One of the fortunate things about cannabis is how safe and how well tolerated it is,” he said.
But Stuyt said much is still unknown about marijuana's effects when combined with other drugs.
“There may be people that are dying or have died of a drug-drug combination, and they're mistakenly thought that they had an accidental overdose,” she said.
The state has approved about 1,900 doctors to issue marijuana cards in Pennsylvania. But records show a small fraction of those doctors approve most of the cards.
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