Pharmacy Daily | Substance misuse ‘part of the culture’

A VICTORIAN pharmacist who misappropriated more than 33,000 Xanax pills, allegedly for personal use, over a two and a half year period claims misuse of medication by pharmacists was common.

A Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) heard that William Trieu, had falsified patient supply records to access large quantities of the medication while working at a number of pharmacies in the State between Nov 2014 and Apr 2017.

Confronted by an Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) investigator, the 33-year-old initially said he had consumed all the medication, but later claimed to have destroyed some of the pills, the Herald-Sun reported.

Trieu was subsequently convicted and sentenced for altering prescriptions and possessing trafficable quantities of the medication in Nov 2019.

In a pre-sentencing report presented to the Victoria Magistrates' Court, Trieu confessed to using Xanax, meth and cocaine regularly to cope with the stresses of his job.

"We were pharmacists, we self-medicated, we knew what we were doing, it was part of the culture," he said.

The Magistrates' Court issued a two-year community correction order.

Speaking at the VCAT hearing last week, Council for the Pharmacy Board of Australia, Glyn Ayres, called for Trieu to be reprimanded and disqualified from reapplying for professional registration for a further 12 months to "protect the public".

Meanwhile, Pharmacy Guild of Australia Victorian Branch President, Anthony Tassone, told Pharmacy Daily that Trieu's comments that medication misuse was prevalent amongst pharmacists was inaccurate.

"It is very saddening to hear of a professional colleague engaging in this type of conduct and we can only hope that Trieu receives the necessary treatment and support he needs," he said.

"However, his experiences of self-medicating and consuming drugs of dependence that pharmacists have access to as part of their clinical work is not reflective of a 'culture' within the profession.

"Pharmacists take their responsibilities as custodians of medicines and champions of the quality use of medicines very seriously."

Tassone advised pharmacists struggling with work-related stress to contact the Pharmacists' Support Service on 1300 244 910.