Psychotropic drugs sold under the cloak to drug addicts and fragile people. Sentences ranging from two to five years in prison, including one suspended, were requested on Wednesday in Bobigny against six people, including a doctor, for drug trafficking.
Lyrica, Rivotril, Subutex, Pregabaline... a couple was driving through the streets of La Courneuve (Seine-Saint-Denis) and the north of Paris to offer these antiepileptics and antidepressants for resale, between March 2022 and April 2023. The boxes of medicines were obtained legally in pharmacies thanks to prescriptions of convenience written in particular by a doctor based in Sevran.
Illegal practice of the profession of pharmacist
"We are poor, we did this to pay for the hotel," justified before the criminal court of Bobigny one of the six defendants, who admitted all the facts and his addiction to alcohol and cocaine. The prosecution requested five prison terms, including one year suspended, against him and his girlfriend. Four men and one woman were detained for illegal practice of the profession of pharmacist while the doctor, who appeared free, was prosecuted for complicity in these offences.
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It is on the occasion of buying cigarettes in La Courneuve from street vendors that apprentice pharmacists, most of whom are drug addicts, hear about the "scheme" of reselling drugs for a few hundred euros. Names of doctors with little regard for prescriptions circulate in the community.
More than a thousand boxes of medicines resold
This business could "bring in 300-400 euros every 3 days", explained a defendant, herself plagued by heavy addictions. A strip of Subutex sold for 10 euros, 50 for Lyrica and 5 euros for a tablet of Valium. According to investigators, more than a thousand boxes of medicines were resold for an estimated profit of 500,000 euros.
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For one of the defendants, nicknamed the "magician", it all started in the street with the consumption of "strong drugs". Wanting to quit, he starts buying Subutex that he will eventually sell to "help his friends" stop cracking.
Prescription of psychotropic drugs
Banned from practicing since this case, the doctor claims to have been "threatened" during the consultations of the couple to whom he prescribed for nearly three years several psychotropic drugs without being their attending physician. "If I had known, I would have stopped," he vowed on the stand. The prosecutor's office requested that the doctor be sentenced to two years in prison and a three-year ban from practising.
"Drug trafficking is the daily lot of the court of Bobigny" where "consumers are also street sellers," said the prosecutor in the preamble of her indictment. "The sale of medicines takes precedence over drug trafficking," warned the magistrate. The judgement was reserved until 13 June.
