UPPER LAKE, Calif. – A case the Medical Board of California and the California Attorney General’s Office brought two years ago alleging that a longtime Upper Lake doctor violated professional codes while prescribing medical marijuana has been settled.
Barbara Yaroslavsky, chair of the Medical Board of California, Department of Consumer Affairs, signed a stipulated settlement and disciplinary order in the case of Dr. Milan Hopkins on March 12.
The settlement goes into effect on April 11, according to the case documents.
The case was filed against Hopkins in March 2012, as Lake County News has reported: http://bit.ly/IJkS2c .
The disciplinary action calls for revocation of Hopkins' medical license; however, it also stays the revocation in favor of five years' probation.
The order requires that Hopkins take continuing education coursework on prescribing practices, medical records keeping, and professionalism and ethics; that he make quarterly declarations; be immediately available for monitoring interviews; and cover his probation monitoring costs.
He also is required to notify all hospitals where he practices of the Medical Board decision, and during his probation he is prohibited from supervising physicians assistants.
Throughout the proceedings, Hopkins has been allowed to continue his medical practice.
“It doesn’t affect his status at all, or the status of his practice or his medical marijuana recommendations,” Hopkins' San Francisco-based attorney, Laurence J. Lichter, said of the Medical Board decision in a Thursday interview with Lake County News.
Both Hopkins and Lichter signed onto the settlement and order last spring, as did the Attorney General's Office. However, it took until last month for the Medical Board of California to finalize it.
“This took a little longer than it should,” Medical Board spokesperson Cassandra Hockenson told Lake County News on Thursday.
The approval process can take time, and in this case she attributed the delay to a “glitch,” adding, “It's not the norm.” She said the Medical Board is working on a new decision streamlining process.
The original 2012 complaint accused Hopkins of three counts of gross negligence for allegedly prescribing marijuana use to three separate patients without the required exams. The complaint said that he ignored serious health issues without making contact or coordinating with primary care physicians.
The fourth charge in the case was for repeated acts of negligence for not appropriately diagnosing a case, ignoring potential health issues and not following up on health issues.
In the case of one female patient – who, as it turned out, was an undercover investigator who visited Hopkins in October 2010 – Hopkins was accused of “searching for a reason for the medical marijuana recommendation to enable the patient to avoid legal issues with her recreational weekend marijuana use.”
The two male patients in the case, both aged 19 at the time, had reportedly driven from Los Angeles to Upper Lake in February 2011 to get medical marijuana recommendations, case documents state.
Lichter told Lake County News that Hopkins already has modified medical record-keeping procedures to address the Medical Board's concerns.
The Medical Board also wants Hopkins to take classes, and Lichter pointed out that all doctors must take continuing education coursework.
Lichter maintained that Hopkins was pulled into the case “accidentally” as the Medical Board was investigating another doctor in another county.
The agency's interest had nothing to do with medical marijuana, added Lichter, whose practice includes marijuana-related cases. He also acts as an advisor to the founders of Oaksterdam University in Oakland, where he originated the law curriculum and serves as the law faculty's dean.
Hopkins was faulted for not having complete medical records of some up the patients he saw. Lichter said Hopkins wants to make sure he has such records, but sometimes the people who come to him don't have a regular physician and so any medical records they may have are not readily available.
He said Hopkins serves a valuable function in the Lake County community. “A lot of people who go to see him up there would not ordinarily see a doctor,” said Lichter.
In such cases, Hopkins tries to steer them toward other specialists, with Lichter adding, “Unfortunately, cannabis doesn’t cure everything.”
Hopkins, who received his medical license in July 1972, had two previous cases which landed him before the Medical Board of California, and has so far spent almost 15 of his nearly 42 years of practice on probation, according to Medical Board records.
The first case was in 1979, when he was accused of gross negligence, incompetence and repeated acts of negligence for overprescribing controlled substances such as Quaaludes, Percodan, Dilaudid and other prescription drugs, receiving 10 years' probation, the Medical Board reported.
In 1998, Hopkins was charged with Business and Professions Codes violations for breaking federal or state statute regarding controlled substances, gross negligence, incompetence and repeated negligent acts, and received five years' probation, according to Medical Board records.
Hockenson said she couldn't comment on why the Medical Board decided on probation in this third case, as she was not privy to the decision.
The board takes many factors into account when making a decision, including the physician's age and past performance, Hockenson said.
The new five-year probation term “will be very strict,” with the Medical Board intending to keep “a close eye” on Hopkins, according to Hockenson.
If Hopkins fails to meet the requirements, his license will be revoked, Hockenson said.
Hopkins has been an outspoken advocate of medical marijuana for many years, and some of his public statements in support of the drug – particularly in the form of newspaper and radio advertising for his medical practice – have raised issues with regional law enforcement.
In 2012, Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster challenged Hopkins on what Eyster said was “misleading” advertising in which he claimed that his medical marijuana recommendations would protect people in any county from prosecution under state law for 99 plants and 19 pounds of processed cannabis.
Eyster said Hopkins' assertions amounted to “risky exaggeration” and “nothing more than bad legal advice.”
Medical Board records show that Hopkins’ medical license remains valid through June 30.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
031214 Medical Board - Milan Hopkins Settlement and Disciplinary Order