Drug Arrest Prompts Revocation of License

The respiratory care license of a Canoga Park practitioner has been revoked due to a drug-related arrest, authorities with the state Department of Consumer Affairs announced Monday.

Jeffrey Alan Barnes, 40, was arrested in 1992 when he tried to buy rock cocaine from an undercover police officer, said Cathleen McCoy, executive officer of the Respiratory Care Board of California within the Department of Consumer Affairs.

Barnes was never convicted of a drug offense. After his arrest, Barnes plea-bargained and was convicted in the Van Nuys Municipal Court of a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace, after agreeing to complete a drug-rehabilitation program, according to McCoy and Barnes.

However, the lesser conviction still gave the board the authority to consider revoking Barnes’ license, McCoy said.

“Persons whose judgment is impaired by drug use pose a serious threat to patients and themselves,” McCoy said Monday. “The board feels that this individual should not be in a patient-care role and that revocation of his license is in the best interest of the public.”

The board took action after Barnes failed to appear at repeated hearings scheduled to consider his explanation of the incident, McCoy said.

“I never heard from them,” Barnes said about alleged correspondence the board sent him over a period of three years.

But McCoy said her office has copies of Barnes’ signatures on U.S. Postal Service documents indicating Barnes received at least some of the certified correspondence about the hearings.

Barnes is eligible to reapply for his license in three years, McCoy said.

Respiratory care practitioners are involved in the treatment of respiratory distress syndrome, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, among other diseases affecting the heart and lungs, according to the board.