Doctors fueling drug addictions with lax prescription practices

Social Affairs

Published: 10 Sep. 2023, 16:57

Doctors fueling drug addictions with lax prescription practices

Shin Woo-ju escorted by the police where the court approved on his arrest warrant on Aug. 11. [YONHAP]

The 28-year-old Shin Woo-jun, who ran over a woman with a Rolls-Royce vehicle in Apgujeong, Gangnam on Aug. 2, tested positive for seven different types of drugs, including the dissociative anesthetic ketamine.

Prosecutors found that Shin had received supplies of such medication from various hospitals, including a plastic surgery hospital in Gangnam.

According to data provided by Democratic Party Rep. Seo Young-seok, one of the hospitals in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam, from which Shin obtained the medication, administered 2,369 doses of propofol, an intravenous anesthetic, to 378 patients last year.

Compared to 2021, this is triple the 735 doses administered and double the 185 patients.

The usage of other anesthetics such as midazolam, diazepam and ketamine from the same hospital also experienced a significant increase.

Rolls-Royce driver Shin tested positive for all such anesthetics.

Another hospital in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam, visited by Shin, was also known for readily prescribing medication to patients.

In June, a drug addiction rehabilitation center requested that the hospital refrain from dispensing medication to patients after one addict, who was undergoing treatment at the center, asked the hospital to stop accepting him as a patient.

A recent incident in which a police officer from Gangwon province fell to his death from a 14-story apartment in Yongsan has garnered attention as a doctor was included among the 21 people that were present at the scene.

The incident was first reported when a call was made that the 30-year-old police officer fell from the high-rise building at 5 a.m. on Aug. 27.

All of the eight individuals at the apartment, including the police officer, tested positive for drugs including ketamine and ecstasy. It was later discovered that 13 additional people had left the apartment earlier.

The suspects, including a doctor, an employee of a Korean conglomerate and a health trainer, claimed that they regularly gathered due to a shared hobby. However, it was revealed that the apartment's host had a history of drug use.

Investigators are currently examining how the individuals in the group obtained the drugs.

Notably, there have been recent accusations against several doctors for allegedly supplying drugs to addicts under the guise of legal treatment.

There have been several cases in which even teenagers were able to obtain prescription drugs from hospitals through deceptive treatments, with information about such hospitals being shared among their peers.

"One could suspect that there are a substantial number of doctors operating much like drug dealers," said physician at a drug addiction treatment center.

According to records from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, which were obtained by JoongAng Ilbo through DP Rep. Kim Won-I office, in the past three years authorities have identified 259 hospitals for their excessive prescription of medication drugs.

Last year saw a record high of 89 such hospitals being detected.

As more medical professionals become involved in the supply of medication drugs, the number of arrests has also increased from 98 in 2018 to 165 last year, according to a white paper by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.

In one case cited by a drug addiction treatment center, a hospital in Seongdong District recommended that patients seeking propofol should obtain it from their hospital if they wanted to avoid detection by authorities.

The hospital also advised the patient, who was on trial for the illegal injection of drug substances, to return to their hospital once the trial was over, promising to reserve a bed for the patient.

In January 2021, the hospital's doctor received a two-year suspension on a six-month prison sentence for administrating 248 doses of propofol to four patients.

The judge in the case ruled that the doctor had enticed the patients to visit the hospital by increasing their dependence on the anesthetic.

Shin Woo-jun checks on the woman, who is run over by his Rolls-Royce, at Apgujeong, Seoul, on Aug. 2. [JOONGANG ILBO]

There have been instances where doctors have used medication drugs on themselves through self-prescription or sold them to others.

According to data provided by the People Power Party (PPP) Rep. Choi Youn-suk's office, approximately 8,000 doctors between 2019 and 2021 issued 25,000 self-prescriptions, totaling an estimated 850,000 medical drugs.

One doctor, in particular, made 26 self-prescriptions for 19,792 medical drugs in 2021 alone. If the doctor had personally used the drugs, it would mean an average intake of 54.3 pills per day.

In another case, an emergency room doctor in Jeongju, North Jeolla, illicitly obtained 679 zolpidem by falsifying records to make it appear as though the pills were prescribed for his father.

The court sentenced the doctor to eight months in prison with a two-year suspension in June 2021.

In October 2020, a plastic surgeon in Seoul was given a three-year suspension on an 18-month prison sentence after his girlfriend died from one of the 12 doses of propofol that the doctor smuggled out from his hospital illegally.

Experts and police in the field suspect that there may be more cases of doctors committing illegal drug-related crimes that have not yet been detected.

The challenge lies in investigators' ability to prove such illegal activities committed by medical professionals.

"It's really difficult to determine whether a doctor's prescription and injection are for legitimate medical purposes or illegal ones," remarked Kim Dae-gyu, a police officer on the drug investigation team at Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency.

Despite police raids on the two hospitals implicated in the Apgujeong Rolls-Royce case, some doctors have continued to prescribe medical drugs to patients.

Another hospital, often considered a "holy grail" among addicts, has never faced criminal charges.

Several patients from the hospital were convicted either for using fentanyl or attempting to sell the medication drugs that they obtained from the hospital to other addicts.

However, the hospital doctor has never been incriminated after he claimed to have been deceived by his patient.

"I only prescribed painkillers as a medical professional because the patients said they were seriously in pain," the doctor said. "In fact, they were feigning illness and deceiving me.

“I am the victim," the doctor argued.

Some have raised concerns about the lack of management and monitoring of medical drugs being smuggled out of hospitals.

Data provided by PPP lawmaker Baek Jong-hean's office showed that between 2019 and June, there were nearly 15,000 incidents where medical drugs were either stolen, lost, damaged or had expired.

"The lack of drug management at medical institutions is a serious issue with the potential to lead to illegal drug injections," said Baek.

Experts emphasize that to address the growing drug problem in the country, investigators should be focused on cutting off the drug supply rather than solely focusing on stopping drug addicts.

They particularly highlight the importance of preventing doctors from prescribing drugs for illegal purposes.

One of three hospitals that Shin Woo-jun received medication on drugs. [JOONGANG ILBO]

According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of the Republic of Korea, last year saw a record number of patients prescribed with medical drugs, totaling 19 million people. This equates to nearly one out of every 2.6 people in the country.

"Doctors supplying drugs could pose a more serious problem than illegal drug smuggling from overseas," stated Park Young-deok, the head of the Addiction Recovery Program at the Korea Association Against Drug Abuse.

"It's nearly impossible for the police to crack down on every medical institution," explained Yoon Heung-hee, a professor at Hansung University specializing in drug and alcohol addiction. "One solution could be to have retired experts, including police officers and customs officers, monitor medical institutions to prevent the improper distribution of medical drugs."

BY KIM MIN-JOONG, LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]