Cases of misuse of medical narcotics were uncovered, including instances where a doctor prescribed psychoactive drugs to patients without properly assessing their health and excessively prescribed hypnotics for 24 times over 18 months.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced on the 5th that it inspected 433 medical institutions handling narcotics last year and identified illegal activities in 188 of them.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety conducted this inspection to create a proper prescribing and usage environment for medical narcotics and to prevent misuse. By analyzing big data from the 'Narcotics Integrated Management System,' which records about 130 million narcotics handling entries annually, the ministry selected medical institutions suspected of excessive prescriptions, medical shopping patients, and those suspected of improper handling, and conducted concentrated inspections in collaboration with local governments and the Korean National Police Agency.
As a result of the inspections, violations of the Narcotics Control Act were confirmed or suspected in 188 medical institutions. Among them, 97 faced referral for investigation, while the remaining 111 were referred for administrative action to the relevant local governments.
In cases referred for investigation, 97 instances of suspected misuse of medical narcotics accounted for 96% of the total. For example, one doctor identified during the inspection prescribed psychoactive drugs such as phendimetrazine and pentermine as appetite suppressants for about 10 months without properly assessing the body mass index (BMI) of patients. There was also a case where the doctor excessively prescribed the psychoactive drug triazolam, used as a hypnotic, to themselves 24 times over 18 months.
The reasons for the administrative actions included violations of the mandatory narcotics handling reporting obligation at 59%, breaches of the responsibilities for managing narcotics handlers at 23%, violations of the prescription documentation obligation at 9%, and breaches of the narcotics storage facility standards at 6%.
The majority of the targeted medical institutions were clinics at 75%, followed by veterinary hospitals at 17%, hospitals at 4%, and pharmacies also at 4%.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety will continue inspections focused on medical institutions with high prescription amounts this year to prevent misuse of medical narcotics. They will continually analyze patient prescription information, identity theft, and handling reports to monitor illegal activities.
Kang Baek-won, the director of narcotics safety planning at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, said, "We will thoroughly analyze the information from the narcotics integrated management system to ensure that medical narcotics can be used appropriately without misuse and will do our best to regain the status of a narcotics-free nation."