Doctors Addicted to Medical Narcotics: Gangnam Dermatology Clinic Issued 4,000 Fake Prescriptions

Medical staff at a dermatology clinic in Gangnam, Seoul, have been caught distributing approximately 120,000 pills of medical narcotics 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 to the prosecution late last month in connection with the misuse and abuse of psychotropic drugs involving a dermatology clinic and a pharmacy located in Gangnam-gu.
Following the arrest of the clinic's director, identified as A, and another doctor, B, on June 25, the police also referred pharmacists who sold the drugs based on fake or inadequate prescriptions, as well as pharmacy staff who acted as intermediaries between the hospital and the pharmacy, to the prosecution without detention.
A and B are accused of becoming addicted to sleeping pill-type psychotropic drugs and fabricating 4,331 prescriptions using the personal information of approximately 3,400 foreign patients between March of last year and early this year to purchase the drugs.
Investigations revealed that they requested staff at a large pharmacy in Seoul to purchase 121,849 pills of psychotropic drugs from pharmacists.
They are also accused of stealing propofol from the hospital safe to administer to themselves after they could no longer take the sleeping pills due to side effects from excessive consumption.
The pharmacists who supplied the sleeping pills and other drugs to them were found to have dispensed the medication without verifying the authenticity of the prescriptions, despite receiving a large volume of prescriptions filled out under other people's names with inadequate information.
Circumstances were also uncovered where some drugs were sold in large quantities at prices higher than the market rate, even without any prescriptions at all.
The police confirmed the charges against the doctors and pharmacists through a six-month investigation that began early this year after receiving a report from a foreigner whose identity had been stolen to prescribe psychotropic drugs.
An official from the Gangnam Police Station stated, "Purchasing and administering 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.