4,000 Fake Prescriptions: Medical Staff Addicted to Narcotics Raid Hospital Safe

Medical staff at a dermatology clinic in Gangnam, Seoul, have been caught distributing approximately 120,000 medical narcotic pills and using them themselves by utilizing over 4,000 fake prescriptions.
The Seoul Gangnam Police Station announced today (July 9) that it has apprehended and referred 13 suspects involved in the misuse and abuse of psychotropic drugs, which involved a dermatology clinic and a pharmacy in Gangnam-gu, to the prosecution at the end of last month.
Following the arrest of the clinic director, identified as A, and a physician, identified as B, on June 25, police also referred pharmacists who sold drugs based on false or inadequate prescriptions, as well as pharmacy staff who connected the hospital and the pharmacy, to the prosecution without detention.
A and B are accused of fabricating 4,331 prescriptions using the personal information of approximately 3,400 foreign patients between March of last year and early this year, after becoming addicted to sleep-inducing psychotropic drugs.
Investigations revealed that they requested staff at a large pharmacy in Seoul to purchase 121,849 psychotropic pills from pharmacists.
They are also accused of stealing propofol from the hospital safe to use themselves after they were unable to consume more of the sleep-inducing drugs due to side effects from excessive intake.

The investigation found that the pharmacists who supplied the sleeping pills provided the drugs without verifying the authenticity of the prescriptions, despite a large volume of inadequately filled prescriptions under other people's names being submitted.
Circumstances were also uncovered where some drugs were sold in large quantities at prices higher than the market rate, even without any prescriptions.
The police confirmed the charges against the medical staff and pharmacists through a six-month investigation that began early this year after receiving a report from a foreigner that psychotropic drugs had been prescribed using their stolen identity.
An official from the Gangnam Police Station stated, "Purchasing and using psychotropic drugs under another person's name is a serious criminal act," adding, "We will continue our investigation into the overall distribution of medical narcotics and do our best to ensure there are no further cases of misuse or abuse."
(Photo: Provided by Gangnam Police Station, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.