The government’s loose management of psychotropic medicines, classified as narcotics, was put on the chopping block of the National Assembly’s administrative audit.
Lawmakers pointed out that reasons for “medical shopping,” in which people visit 135 medical institutions a year to get sleeping anesthetic, propofol, and self-prescription of such drugs by medical personnel, have not improved due to the inadequate management system.
According to data submitted by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to Rep. Kim Young-joo of the Democratic Party of Korea Friday, the number of patients who visited two or more medical institutions to prescribe propofol increased by nearly 190,000 in four years, from 488,115 in 2019 to 676,462 in 2022.
The number of patients who visited five or more medical institutions to get propofol more than doubled from 1,503 in 2019 to 3,059 in 2022.
One woman in her 30s even went to 135 medical institutions last year and received 826 doses of propofol. That's an average of more than two doses a day. Propofol is a psychotropic drug restricted for non-therapeutic use due to its strong psychological dependence.
Propofol is not the only such case. A man in his 40s was prescribed 6,700 Phentermine tablets over 127 visits to 17 healthcare providers last year. Another man in his 30s was prescribed 12,775 zolpidem tablets on 525 occasions by 39 healthcare providers.
Rampant drug abuses ranging from self-prescription to online sale of narcotics
Over-prescription and self-prescription of narcotic drugs by medical professionals were also pointed out as problems.
According to the data “Top 30 Medical Institutions Prescribing Narcotic Drugs” submitted by the MFDS to Rep. Baek Jong-heon of the People Power Party, a physician in Dalseo-gu, Daegu, prescribed 22,169,745 psychotropic tablets to 31,804 patients last year and was referred to investigation.
The psychotropic drugs prescribed by the doctor to his patients were appetite suppressants, and his hospital was also the medical institution that prescribed the most appetite suppressants last year.
In Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, two psychiatrists affiliated with a hospital specializing in alcoholism treatment are under investigation after being found to have received 367 proxy prescriptions for psychotropic drugs in their family members’ names.
Over the past five years, the number of doctors prescribed psychotropic drugs and administered them on themselves was 53,688, recording 143,854 prescriptions involving 4,573,017 tablets. Self-prescribed medications were mainly anti-anxiety, hypnotic, and appetite suppressants.
During the same period, 51,642 psychotropic medications were prescribed in the name of 1,635 deaths.
Psychotropic drugs were also being sold online.
According to the “Status of Detection of Online Sales of Narcotic Appetite Suppressants' submitted by MFDS to Rep. Seo Jeong-sook of PPP, the number of detections of online sales of psychotropic drugs increased from four in 2019 and one in 2020 to 181 in 2021 and 807 in 2022. This year, 369 cases have been detected through July.
More than 90 percent of the total, or 1,226 cases, were through easily accessible social media. This year, 111 cases of appetite suppressants, classified as psychotropic drugs, were caught selling in regular shopping malls.
Lawmakers call for preventing abuses of drug abuses through survey
Lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties called for the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to identify narcotic drug misuse and develop strong measures to prevent it.
They also pointed out that although the regulator has implemented the “Patient Medication Confirmation Service for Doctors” since 2020 to prevent patients from shopping for narcotic drugs at various medical institutions, it has increased in the form of hospital shopping.
They stressed the need to strengthen disciplines to enforce medication restrictions and check patient medication details.
"The physical and mental damage to patients when abusing psychotropic drugs, such as propofol and zolpidem, is serious," Kim said. "It is necessary to conduct a full investigation on patients who visit multiple medical institutions to shop for medical drugs, and if necessary, prohibit and punish them for prescribing narcotics."
Rep. Seo said, "As the illegal online sale of (appetite suppressants) is spreading, the government should take a comprehensive response by working with related agencies, like the National Police Agency and the Ministry of Justice, to grasp their abuse and misuse."