Pharmacist Guilty of Illegally Supplying Addictive Drugs

An Australian pharmacist was caught distributing addictive drugs, falsifying entries to disguise his theft of pills, and supplying medications without prescriptions.

The State Administrative Tribunal of Western Australia, which found Nicholas Gledhill “impaired,” has disqualified the pharmacist from applying for a new registration for 2 years, and he will have to pay $5000 in legal costs to the Pharmacy Board of Australia.

Back in 2006, Gledhill pleaded guilty to offenses committed under the Poisons Act of 1964, after the Pharmacy Board revoked his authority to use, supply, or sell addictive drugs. Despite this revocation, he supplied drugs of dependence (section 8) medications 3600 times at his pharmacy between October 2009 and December 2012, the board maintained. Gledhill also supplied prescription medications on 136 occasions to individuals without a prescription.

In 2012, he falsified entries in the pharmacy inventory to disguise the fact that he was stealing section 8 drugs himself. Gledhill also failed to follow Poison Regulations rules, by placing addictive drugs in a locked drawer, instead of a locked safe.

Gledhill was charged with 10 counts of breaching the Poisons Act for taking prescribed drugs of addiction between June 2012 and December 2012, pleaded guilty, and was fined $30,000.

While he admitted his guilt, Gledhill maintained that he needed to provide medications without prescriptions because his remote town only had 1 general practitioner, so prescriptions could be delayed. He said he gave the drugs to patients who had received them in the past.

Nonetheless, the 2014 tribunal reprimanded Gledhill and determined that he had engaged in professional misconduct.