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| ▲ The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office (Yonhap) |
doctors-drug prescription
2 doctors indicted for illegally prescribing 'zombie drug' to drug addict
SEOUL, June 27 (Yonhap) -- Two doctors have been indicted on charges of illegally and habitually prescribing fentanyl, a highly potent opioid used mainly for terminal cancer patients, to a drug addict, prosecutors said Tuesday.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office said it has arrested and indicted a family medicine doctor, surnamed Shin, 59, for prescribing 4,826 fentanyl patches to the 30-year-old drug addict, known only as Kim, between November 2020 and April this year.
It marks the first time that a doctor has been arrested and indicted for illegally distributing a medical drug.
The prosecution has also indicted an orthopedist, surnamed Lim, 42, without detention on charges of prescribing 686 fentanyl patches to Kim in 2021.
Kim was also arrested and indicted for having been prescribed about 7,660 fentanyl patches from 16 hospitals, including the ones run by Shin and Lim, for three years.
Fentanyl, nicknamed a "zombie drug," is a powerful narcotic pain reliever that is only used to help patients suffering from extreme pain. The drug is said to be about 100 times more potent than morphine, and more than 70,000 people reportedly died from fentanyl poisoning in the United States in 2021.
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