A former bodybuilder stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in drugs while working at a medical waste-disposal company, a court has heard.
The Victorian County Court heard John Gonzalez used amphetamines partly to gain a competitive edge in body building and when he had access to large amounts of drugs through his day job, it was too tempting to ignore.
The father of two is facing a maximum term of life in jail after a police search of his family home in 2007 uncovered an “Aladdin’s cave of drugs”, prosecutor George Slim told the pre-sentence hearing.
More than 17 kilograms of pseudoephedrine, worth almost $700,000, was found among the stash of pills and other drugs stored at his Epping home.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/worker-stole-drugs-on-the-job-20100928-15vbv.html
The theft of drugs from clinical waste carries immense risk – and in this particular case the added risk of life imprisonment. I guess form the amounts involved that this theft was of bulk pharmacy waste or more likely manufacturing waste which brings yet more problems of drug safety.
Even small amounts of drug waste from individuals bins and bags, and from sharps containers, is a real risk and waste security is essential. Contractors should be aware of the possibility and vigilant to the possibility that their staff, and other ‘midnight visitors – might target waste as a source of illicit drug supply.
Indeed, 20+ years ago sharps bins were specifically targetted by addicts and these had their own cash value on the black market, with many London and other city cente hospitals plagued by addicts rifling though waste carts.
Have we learned a lesson from this? Not really, since the security of clinical wastes on hospital sites is generally poor, with lack of gated storage and unlocked carts – issues that the regulators generally chooses to ignore.
DOOM kits and other products for the disposal of unwanted medicines are a great idea, but the addition of Bitrex™ during assembly is advisable, to make absolutely certain that should anything be retrieved it cannot be ingested.