Doctor loses medical licence for selling codeine-laced cough syrup illegally

[Sammyboy RSS Feed]

An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

http://yourhealth.asiaone.com/print/...yrup-illegally

SINGAPORE - A doctor can no longer practise medicine in Singapore after being convicted of selling codeine-laced cough syrup wholesale to others.

Dr Ho Thong Chew's name has been removed from the Register of Medical Practitioners with effect from Jan 18 this year, the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) said in a statement on Monday.

To protect public interest and uphold the integrity of the medical profession, the Disciplinary Tribunal (DT) of SMC cited three main factors that led to Dr Ho's sentence:

- He was aware that Dhasedyl syrup, which contained codeine, was sold to the public without regulation over its recipients and that its sale could have caused harm to the public;

- He continued to sell the cough syrup wholesale even after his clinic was raided by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA);

- He knowingly sold an estimated 1,907 litres of Dhasedyl syrup without a proper license for five months to three patients who resold it for profit.

On July 20, 2012, Dr Ho pleaded guilty to 12 charges of selling codeine-laced cough syrup without a wholesale licence and was sentenced to 7 1/2 months in jail and fined $60,000.

According to The New Paper, he was found to have purchased 908 canisters of 3.8-litre cough syrup from Jan 4 to May 23, 2011.

The general practitioner who was then practising at Focus Medical Group earned approximately $260,000 from selling 846 canisters of the prescription medicine to three patients who later resold them to drug addicts.

Codeine is the active ingredient in cough syrups that drug addicts use as a substitute for other drugs to get high.

[email protected]


Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com.