Two nurses were arrested in the Lviv region for selling methadone
In Sheptytskyi, Lviv Oblast, law enforcement officials have arrested two nurses from the central city hospital who are suspected of selling methadone. The drugs in question are tablets intended for substitution therapy for people with drug addiction.
According to police, the nurses were selling these medications to unauthorized individuals, even though they were supposed to be used as part of a substitution maintenance therapy program. Both nurses were detained.
As reported on Friday, October 30, by the Lviv region police and prosecutor’s office, the nurses responsible for dispensing the medications were selling the pills directly from their office.
Law enforcement officers documented how the nurses illegally sold more than 120 narcotic pills. On October 27, one of the suspects was detained after another transaction—the sale of 21 methadone-containing pills.
In addition, during an authorized search of the suspects’ office, law enforcement officers seized another 60 narcotic-containing pills that they were storing for sale.
Law enforcement officers documented at least five instances in which only one person came to pick up pills on behalf of three actual patients. She would sign for them and take the entire quantity at once—21 pills each time. In this way, the woman illegally obtained 70 pills from the medical facility “for acquaintances” and the rest—officially—for herself.
“Furthermore, according to preliminary information, some registered drug-dependent individuals did not actually show up at the facility at all. At the same time, the records indicated that the medications had allegedly been dispensed to them. In addition, patients may have been given fewer pills than the amount calculated for a week’s use, while the full amount was recorded in the reports,” the prosecutor’s office stated.
Both nurses were notified of suspicions of illegal distribution of narcotic drugs committed by a group of individuals acting in concert (Part 2 of Article 307 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), and one of them was additionally charged with the illegal possession of narcotics with the intent to sell (Part 2 of Article 307 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). According to ZAXD.NET, the nurses were selling narcotic pills at the “Central City Hospital of the Sheptytsky City Council,” a municipal non-profit enterprise.
This was reported on Friday, October 30, by the police and the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
In the Khmelnytskyi region, a man will stand trial for repeat distribution of methadone.
