A bill that obligates checking a patient's medical narcotics history when prescribing psychotropic drugs has passed the National Assembly’s plenary session.

The amendment to the Narcotic Drugs Control Act, which passed Assembly’s plenary session on Thursday, includes the imposition of a fine of less than 5 million won ($3,780) if a doctor fails to check a patient's drug history when prescribing psychotropic drugs.

According to the bill, doctors must check the patient's narcotic medication history through a relevant inquiry service, excluding exceptional circumstances stipulated by the presidential decree, such as when there is an urgent reason, or there is no risk of abuse.

The amendment also makes it punishable by imprisonment of one year or less or a fine of 10 million won or less for anyone who handles psychotropic drugs by making false statements on a prescription.

The medication history inquiry service to prevent the misuse of narcotics was implemented in March 2021. However, as of 2021, the number of medical professionals dealing in drugs who used the inquiry service totaled 2,038, or 1.8 percent of 110,000 doctors, and their number of inquiries was 31,493. This is too small, given that there were 1,135,797 prescriptions for the narcotic painkiller fentanyl alone, making it necessary to obligate the inquiry by law, officials said.

“The amendments to the Narcotic Drugs Control Act will better prevent the misuse of narcotics by requiring doctors licensed to prescribe narcotics or psychotropic drugs to check the patient's past medication history," the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said.

It added that exceptions, such as when there is an urgent reason, or there is no concern of abuse, and target narcotics and psychotropic drugs subject to the law would be determined by subordinate decrees and rules.