Did anyone here use this guy for their rec??
Colorado doctor accused of faulty medical-pot recommendation, may lose license
By John Ingold
The Denver Post
Posted: 12/22/2010
A doctor accused of approving medical marijuana for a woman six months pregnant could become the first Colorado physician to lose his license for a sub-standard marijuana recommendation.
Dr. Manuel De Jesus Aquino is accused of recommending marijuana in January to a 20-year-old woman at a Denver dispensary. In a formal complaint filed last week by the state attorney general's office on behalf of the Colorado Medical Board, Aquino is accused of not performing a thorough review of the woman's medical history, not listening to her heart or lungs, not asking her to come back for follow-up care and not taking any notes on the 3-minute evaluation other than on her marijuana-recommendation form.
The doctor did not ask whether she was pregnant, and the woman, who was 28 weeks along, did not volunteer the information, the complaint states. When the woman gave birth in April, her child tested positive for marijuana and had "initial feeding difficulties," the complaint says.
The complaint against Aquino was first reported by Solutions, a health-policy news website produced by professional journalists at the University of Colorado Denver's School of Public Affairs and funded by private foundations.
"Pregnancy is a contraindication for the use of medical marijuana," the complaint states, later stating that Aquino "failed to meet the generally accepted standard of medical practice."
Colorado law requires doctors to have a "bona-fide" relationship with patients to whom they recommend marijuana.
Aquino has been a doctor since 1974 and licensed in Colorado since 2007, according to a profile of him posted on the Colorado Division of Registrations' website. His license has been suspended pending the outcome of the medical board's proceedings, according to the complaint.
Aquino's attorney, Sheila Meer, could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening. She told Solutions that Aquino would respond to the charges within the 30 days allowed.
"It would be premature to talk about it until then," Meer told the website.
Aquino specializes in medical-marijuana recommendations, according to the online profile.
In July, Aurora police arrested a doctor named Manuel Aquino-Villaman on allegations of writing shoddy marijuana recommendations to two undercover Aurora police officers.
There is only one doctor named Manuel Aquino listed in Colorado's physician licensing records, though no one was available to confirm Tuesday evening whether Aquino and Aquino-Villaman are the same person.
