Asking for 100 Sleeping Pills and Getting Them Right Away... Shocking Reality

[Anchor]

"Warehouse-style pharmacies," where people can buy various types of drugs at lower prices, are popping up everywhere. However, some of these warehouse-style pharmacies were found handing over medications that could be misused for illicit drug manufacturing or delinquency in large quantities without any proper verification.

Reporter Kim Jin-u investigated on-site.

[Reporter]

A warehouse-style pharmacy in the Seoul metropolitan area.

Shopping carts are lined up, and medicines are piled high like groceries, making it look reminiscent of a large supermarket.

Among the displayed drugs are sleeping aids.

Although classified as "over-the-counter drugs," they can cause hallucinations when taken in excessive amounts, leading to them being misused for delinquency by some teenagers.

The recommended daily dosage for sleeping aids is one pill.

When I said I wanted to buy 100 pills at once, the pharmacist asked this in return:

[Pharmacist: This is the medicine you've been taking regularly, right?]

Without any follow-up questions asking for the reason behind the bulk purchase or any medication guidance including precautions, the pharmacist took the payment and handed over 100 pills.

Another warehouse-style pharmacy in the metropolitan area.

In addition to 100 sleeping pills, I placed 100 cold medicine pills containing an ingredient called "pseudoephedrine," which can potentially be misused to manufacture illegal drugs, on the counter.

Once again, there was no medication guidance, and only this question was asked:

[Pharmacy Staff: Would you like to pay in a lump sum?]

These are the medicines I bought while visiting two warehouse-style pharmacies in a single day.

I was able to purchase a 200-day supply of sleeping aids and a 33-day supply of cold medicine containing "pseudoephedrine," which is more than eight times the per-person sales limit recommended by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

[Lee Sung-woo / Professor of Emergency Medicine, Korea University Anam Hospital: (When sleeping aids are overdosed) the most fatal side effect is cardiac arrhythmia. It can directly lead to cardiac arrest. (Over-the-counter drugs containing pseudoephedrine) are sometimes used for abuse purposes such as hallucinations.]

At warehouse-style pharmacies, consumers pick out medicines directly without going through a pharmacist, and there are relatively fewer pharmacists compared to customers, meaning that routine medication guidance is often not properly conducted.

[Lee Man-hee / National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee Chairperson (People Power Party): Medications are fundamentally different in nature from general manufactured goods that can simply be displayed in large quantities and sold cheaply. Naturally, on-site inspections must be conducted and countermeasures must be prepared.]

The Ministry of Health and Welfare told SBS, "Selling over-the-counter drugs prone to abuse in excessive quantities without medication guidance can result in disciplinary measures such as license suspension for violating pharmacist ethical standards," adding that "an on-site investigation will be conducted."

(Video Reporter: Lee Seung-hwan, Ha Ryung | Video Editor: Lee Seung-hee, Park Ji-in | Designer: Han Heung-su, Kim Min-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.