The state has pulled the license of Anthony Donatelli, a Providence chiropractor, accusing him of illegally ordering drugs.

This is the second time the health director has summarily suspended Donatelli’s license because his practice was deemed a danger to the public.

According to an order yesterday from state Health Director Dr. David R. Gifford, Donatelli used false pretenses to obtain hydrocodone, a narcotic pain reliever best known by its brand name Vicodin, and depo-testosterone, an anabolic steroid abused by body-builders.

The order said that Donatelli altered a certificate from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency that had been issued to a physician who once worked with Donatelli. Donatelli changed the address on the certificate to that of the chiropractor’s own office, 125 Atwells Ave., and also asked a medical-supply company to ship the drugs to his office.

Instead, the supply company shipped it to the physician’s home. Donatelli went to the physician’s home to pick up the drugs, the order said. The physician, who was not named, notified the state Board of Examiners in Chiropractic.

Bruce W. McIntyre, the board’s lawyer, said that the DEA conducted an investigation of Donatelli last year. “It was too small of a case for the feds to handle,” he said. “They referred it back to us for administrative action.”

Meanwhile, the board was notified on Jan. 9 that Donatelli was not cooperating with the company that had been monitoring his practice since he resumed after his last license suspension.

It had been suspended in 2004 because he billed insurance companies for services purportedly rendered on dates when he was in the hospital undergoing open-heart surgery and because his documentation of his services was poor, according to McIntyre.

In 2005, he was allowed to resume practicing provided that he submit to a two-year monitoring program. But recently Donatelli had stopped paying the monitors and stopped cooperating with them, McIntyre said.

The order also states that Donatelli’s “pattern of illegal and unprofessional conduct dates back to his original licensure in Virginia where he was arrested, convicted of and served time for dealing in anabolic steroids. He has demonstrated that he is unfit for the practice of chiropractic medicine.”

Donatelli is entitled to a hearing on the summary suspension, which McIntyre said has been scheduled for Friday.