Seoul Accounts for 22% of Nationwide Narcotics Prescriptions, but Has No Designated Collection and Disposal Pharmacies

Gyeonggi Province Has 25 Designated Pharmacies Despite Similar Prescription Volume
"Thorough Review Needed for Designating Collection Pharmacies"

Although more than 20% of the nation’s prescriptions for psychotropic drugs and institutions handling narcotics are concentrated in Seoul, there are currently no designated collection and disposal pharmacies for narcotics in the city. This has raised concerns about the limitations of Seoul’s system to prevent the misuse of narcotics. In contrast, Gyeonggi Province, which has a similar scale of psychotropic drug prescriptions and narcotics-handling institutions, has 25 such collection and disposal pharmacies.

According to data submitted by Assemblywoman Seo Myungok of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee, to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, approximately 1,237,657,000 psychotropic drugs were prescribed nationwide last year. Of these, 272,486,000 prescriptions-22% of the total-were issued in Seoul alone. As of last year, 24.7% of all medical institutions and pharmacies handling narcotics nationwide were also concentrated in Seoul.

Despite this, there are no designated narcotics collection and disposal pharmacies in Seoul. By comparison, Gyeonggi Province, which has a slightly higher prescription volume than Seoul, has 25 such designated pharmacies. The volume of psychotropic drug prescriptions in Seoul is about 97% of that in Gyeonggi Province.

Narcotics collection and disposal pharmacies operate as part of a pilot project by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to collect and dispose of unused narcotics. Since 2022, the ministry has been running this project to prevent unused medical narcotics from being misused or illegally distributed. The goal is to establish a dedicated system in which patients can return leftover narcotics to designated pharmacies, after which licensed wholesalers collect them for incineration at medical waste disposal companies.

Concerns about narcotics-related incidents due to misuse are growing each year. According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, there were 3,881 narcotics-related incidents last year, a 32% increase compared to 2020. In 2022, there were two fatal incidents in Ulsan involving the consumption of leftover narcotic drugs, and in Sejong, a man in his 70s died after overdosing on fentanyl prescribed under his wife’s name.

Assemblywoman Seo stated, “It is questionable that Seoul, which handles the largest volume of medical narcotics in the country, has not designated any collection and disposal pharmacies. A thorough investigation into local conditions is needed, and the designation of such pharmacies in Seoul should be carefully considered.”

A Ministry of Food and Drug Safety official commented, “We plan to expand the number of participating pharmacies from the current 100 to 150 next year by adding regions that have not yet participated, densely populated areas, and pharmacies with high volumes of narcotics dispensing. In particular, we will consider designating collection and disposal pharmacies in Seoul, given that it has the highest number of medical institutions and pharmacies handling narcotics nationwide.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.