[Anchor]

So-called warehouse-style pharmacies, where people can buy various types of medicines at low prices, have been rapidly increasing recently. However, it is a major problem that some of these pharmacies make it easy to obtain large quantities of drugs that can be used to manufacture narcotics.

Reporter Kim Jin-u has the story.

[Reporter]

A warehouse-style pharmacy in the Seoul metropolitan area.

Shopping carts are lined up, and medicines are piled high like groceries, reminiscent of a large discount mart.

Among the displayed medications are sleep aids.

Although classified as over-the-counter drugs, excessive consumption can cause hallucinations, leading to them being abused by some teenagers for deviant behavior.

The recommended daily dosage for sleep aids is one pill.

When we said we wanted to buy 100 pills at once, the pharmacist asked back:

[Pharmacist: You've been taking this medicine regularly, right?]

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

Another warehouse-style pharmacy in the Seoul metropolitan area.

In addition to 100 sleeping pills, we placed 100 cold medicine pills containing "pseudoephedrine," an ingredient that can be abused to manufacture narcotics, on the checkout counter.

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

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

These are the medicines I bought while visiting two warehouse-style pharmacies over the course of a day.

I was able to purchase a 200-day supply of sleep aids, and a 33-day supply of cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine—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 sleep aids are taken in excess) the most fatal side effect is cardiac arrhythmia. It can lead directly to cardiac arrest. (Over-the-counter medicines containing pseudoephedrine) are sometimes used for purposes of abuse, such as hallucinations.]

At warehouse-style pharmacies, consumers choose medicines directly without going through a pharmacist, and there are fewer pharmacists compared to customers, meaning that routine medication guidance is frequently not properly provided.

[Lee Man-hee / National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee Chairperson (People Power Party): Pharmaceuticals are fundamentally different in nature from regular 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 amounts without medication guidance violates pharmacist ethical standards and can lead to disciplinary actions such as suspension of qualifications," adding that "we plan to conduct on-site investigations."

(Video by Lee Seung-hwan and Ha Ryung | Video Editing by Lee Seung-hee and Park Ji-in | Design by Han Heung-su and Kim Min-young)