Over the past three years, a fifty-one-year-old woman from Liberec has tricked nearly twenty doctors into obtaining prescription hypnotics. She obtained prescriptions for drugs containing zolpidem from doctors by pretending to be their patients during phone calls with them. Criminal investigators charged the woman with the crime of possessing a narcotic and psychotropic substance and poison, for which she faces from two to eight years in prison.
“The case was interesting to us mainly because of the simple way in which the woman procured medication and how she was able to use the trust of doctors who, especially during the pandemic, issued e-prescriptions only after a telephone consultation,” said Pavel Folprecht, head of the Liberec police TOXI team.
She obtained the drugs only for her own use, said regional police spokesman Vojtěch Robovský. He stated that the police will deal with the actions of the doctors in cooperation with the Czech Medical Chamber.
Medicines containing zolpidem are used for the short-term treatment of insomnia and some brain disorders. Their dispensing is subject to a medical prescription. “During phone calls to doctors, she always pretended to be a specific patient of that doctor,” informed Robovský.
“She drew the names of the patients from the circle of her acquaintances, when she obtained information related to their health condition and the name of the attending physician during calls with them,” the police said. According to him, the people whose names she misused did not know about it.
The woman picked up the medicines in pharmacies not only in Liberecka, but also in other places around the country. Criminal investigators have been working on the case since the summer of last year, the woman was charged a few days ago.
According to the findings of criminologists, the woman illegally obtained approximately 5,500 tablets containing zolpidem in three years. “Specifically, about 55,000 milligrams of the active substance, while an amount exceeding seven,000 milligrams is already considered a significant amount,” added Robovský.
Video: Abuse of hypnotics? We are brought up that there is a powder for everything, says Kuda (13/07/2022)
People abuse drugs because they help them not experience emotions. However, they have a high addiction potential, which is why they are only prescribed for a short time. | Video: Daniela Drtinová
