Doctor ‘micro-dosing’ meth

Drug-addicted medico wants to use own experience ‘to help others’

A tribunal has been told a drugaddicted Arnhem Land doctor who micro-dosed meth before shifts should be deregistered and given a temporary ban – but should also be given a chance at redemption.

Dr Timothy Blake, a respected rural generalist at Gove District Hospital, was arrested in December 2020 after soup packets stuffed with methamphetamine were sent to a PO box registered in his name.

A subsequent search of his residence uncovered a laundry list of illicit and restricted substanc e s , including ketamine, cocaine and Timothy methamJames Blake phetamine.

In January 2022, the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory sentenced Dr Blake to 12 months’ imprisonment, wholly suspended, after he pleaded guilty to a raft of drug and firearms offences.

On Friday, the Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard an application by the Medical Board of Australia to sanction Dr Blake.

Lawyer Lachlan Baird, representing the board, submitted that in addition to the criminal conduct, Dr Blake also fraudulently affixed the signature of a supervisor to obtain a $6000 grant, and ought to have known as a competent health practitioner his addiction woes had spiralled to a point he needed professional help.

The board alleged that at the height of his addiction in 2020, he was consuming up to 40g of methamphetamine and dexamphetamine (a legal ADHD medication) a day.

Mr Baird said that while only one day of “micro-dosing” methamphetamine before work was particularised by the board in its written material, it could be “inferred” that it occurred on a large number of occasions. This was not disputed.

Mr Baird told the tribunal that registered professionals were rightly “held to a higher standard for their professional conduct” and that it was “entirely unacceptable for a practitioner to embark on a course of self-treatment using illicit substances”.

Dr Blake’s lawyer, Marion Isobel, told the tribunal her client was an “extraordinary man” whose undiagnosed ADHD wrought havoc on his life.

She said he was now totally abstinent from all intoxicants – including alcohol – and had surrounded himself with a team of medical practitioners: two psychiatrists, a psychologist, a GP, weekly group therapy, and an ADHD executive function coach.

Ms Isobel said her client had been in “sustained remission” for more than three years and “wants to use his own lived experience to help others”.

Both parties jointly submitted that Dr Blake should be found to have engaged in professional misconduct; reprimanded; deregistered from the medical profession; banned from reapplying for six months; and ordered to pay costs of $15,000.

Dr Blake consented to such orders being made. Tribunal presiding member George Roussos will hand down his decision at a later date.