Mum’s word for junkies

Addicts stealing identities to make $1000 a week selling prescription pills

JUNKIES are making about $1000 a week by using the identities of suburban mums to get prescription pills and sell them on the black market.

Medical professionals said the fraudsters were selling the narcotic painkillers for up $10 a pill. The Bulletin last month reported dozens of Gold Coast women were being flagged as addicts because a former classmate allegedly stole their identities BULLETIN FRONT PAGE Saturday, January 19, 2019

to con doctors prescribing narcotics.

The Queensland Government said the misuse of painkillers was a “growing issue” and the problem regularly emerged in the courts. A medi-

into cal industry source said: “people are selling some medications for $10 a pill. In some cases people are managing to make a monthly salary of $3000 to $4000 by selling their prescribed medication.”

In just one day in the Southport Magistrates Court last week, a former opioid addict pleaded guilty to defrauding a woman of almost $2000 while another man pleaded guilty to attempting to rob a pharmacy with a syringe loaded with a “red substance” in an attempt to get prescription drugs. Leading Gold Coast general practitioner Dr Sonu Haikerwal says health professionals need to be more vigilant about socalled “drug seekers” who exploit the system to score powerful pain medications.

The former president of the Gold Coast Medical Association said a “very big stocktake of the system” was required to stop addicts and drug sellers from taking advantage of the health system. Dr Haikerwal said it was not the first instinct of health professionals to act like “policemen” to stop crooks exploiting the system.

“Like with anything, if the system is abused then the price is paid by everyone, I think as a community we need to be more vigilant,” said Dr Haikerwal, co-owner and principal general practitioner at the Haan Health Medical Centre at Broadbeach.

Dr Haikerwal said larger medical centres were more susceptible to fraud. She said fraudsters were getting around the system because, in some cases, procedures may not have been followed.

Dr Haikerwal said scammers can get doctors and pharmacists into legal trouble.

“We keep trying to change our systems every day to avoid being fooled, it’s a horrible feeling to be fooled,” she said.

“And if through us their personal information is given to someone else, then we become the targets of all responsibility because we have this thing call indemnity.”