The scandal over tranquilizers being given to preschool children in New Taipei City is becoming increasingly heated. This case, involving feeding narcotics to children to keep them quiet so their teachers could rest, has come as quite a shock.
Media reported that several children have tested positive for residues of two sedative classes — barbiturates and benzodiazepines.
Barbiturates are sedative and hypnotic medications that are legally classed as Schedule 3 restricted medicines and category 3 narcotics. As their half-life is about 100 hours in adults and a little longer in children, the concentration is often too low to detect in a blood test conducted after several days or weeks — it can only be detected by testing a person’s urine or hair.
Benzodiazepines are another class of sedative and hypnotic drug, classed as a category 4 narcotic. Their half-life depends on how long it is effective. They might become undetectable after a few days.
However, the question that concerns most people is how the preschool could obtain controlled drugs so easily, while government departments cannot source the drugs’ origins.
Media and people interviewed about the incident have said that the barbiturates that were given to the children were obtained from compound or single medicines that physicians prescribed for sick children.
This opinion requires clarification. Medical barbiturates are Schedule 3 restricted medicines, so the person who receives them must present a prescription along with an identity card, and sign for the drugs.
The transaction must be logged. Local government health departments spot-check hospitals and clinics that have received restricted medicines, and those who breach the regulations are fined at least NT$60,000.
Therefore, it is impossible for hospitals and clinics to casually dispense restricted medicines without leaving a paper trail.
It is commonplace for preschools to give children medicine that has been prescribed to them.
However, they would always do so following a doctor’s prescription given to the school by parents. Teachers would never take out a bunch of colorful medicines and feed them to children, let alone those containing controlled drugs of unknown origin.
Therefore, the drugs might have come from someone who obtained them in accordance with National Health Insurance (NHI) regulations: They could have come from a pharmacy that sells drugs illegally on a self-paid basis without registering the transaction, or from a hospital or clinic that illegally dispenses drugs on a self-paid basis — such as through a prescription under the guise of reimbursement — or even from illegal online purchases.
Judicial departments and competent health authorities should trace the source of the drugs as soon as possible and severely punish any lawbreakers.
Until the source of the drugs is found, it would be better not to accuse anyone. No legitimate physician would prescribe sedative hypnotic drugs such as barbiturates to children unless they suffer from epilepsy, nor would they prescribe barbiturates to children suffering from common illnesses.
If they really did prescribe such medicines, their hospital or clinic would upload the prescriptions daily to the NHI’s database.
Details can easily be retrieved from hospital or clinic records where children are treated and from the NHI database. Commentators should desist from idle speculation to avoid spreading fear.
Lin Yung-zen is president of the Taiwan Primary Care Association and a supervisor of the Taiwan Pediatric Association.
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