In the first prosecution of its kind in Ireland, Naomi McElroy, a reporter for the Sunday Mirror, will be tried on 10 counts, including misuse of drugs, theft and fraud after obtaining and writing fake prescriptions.
The case, which will be heard before a jury at the circuit criminal court, is more likely to be a trial of journalistic ethics.
Several high-profile reporters are expected to give evidence in support of the tactics used by McElroy.
They include Paul Williams, crime correspondent with the Sunday World, and Matt Cooper, presenter of The Last Word on Today FM.
McElroy, who handed over the prescription drugs that she bought to gardai, is pleading not guilty to the charges. The trial is expected to last three days.
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Two years ago McElroy, posing as a doctor’s receptionist, rang a printer’s firm, which agreed to supply 10 prescription pads.
As part of research for an article detailing the ease with which dangerous prescription drugs can be sold for sale on the streets, McElroy wrote five fake prescriptions. She then used these in five Dublin chemists to buy drugs including Prozac, which is used to treat depression, Lepraxo, Olanzapine, and the tranquillisers Xanax and Dalmane.
On August 1, 2004, the Sunday Mirror published details of its undercover sting, admitting that “our reporter faked five prescriptions to buy a deadly cocktail of drugs over the counter”. The newspaper said this proved how easy it is to “illegally get your hands on dangerous prescription drugs in Ireland”.
It added: “Our investigation reveals a frightening security loophole in the Irish health system and prescribed drugs policy enabling anyone to buy addictive and potentially dangerous medicines straight over the counter.”
McElroy gave details of how she duped the five pharmacies. “Getting my hands on the prescriptions was easy — all it took was one phone call,” she wrote. “I wrote five separate prescriptions to be used in five different chemists. Each one contained a heavy-duty drug — tranquillisers such as Dalmane or mood elevators such as Prozac — as well as a second, weaker medicine.
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“In just over an hour I had a massive stash including Prozac, tranquillisers and sleeping tablets. All were on false prescriptions I had filled out myself, but the chemists’ suspicions were never aroused.”
Gardai took a dim view of the Mirror’s escapade, however, and sent a file to the director of public prosecutions (DPP). McElroy has been charged with five counts under the misuse of drugs act, and given charges under the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act of 2001.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI), the regulatory body for pharmacists, agrees that it is pharmacists’ duty to establish the authenticity of all prescriptions.
“There is a legal obligation on pharmacists that they are acquainted with the signature of the prescriber and have no reason to believe that the signature is not genuine,” said the PSI. “Otherwise they must take reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that the signature is genuine.”
After the apparent success of the sting, the British edition of the Sunday Mirror ran a similar undercover operation last year. An article entitled “Despicapill”, published last November, detailed how two undercover reporters wrote out bogus prescriptions to secure controlled drugs from a variety of chemists.
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The decision by the DPP to prosecute McElroy may cause newspaper editors who employ undercover tactics in their research to have a rethink.
It is not the first time Irish journalists have been brought before the courts. In 1993, two newspaper editors, two radio journalists and two reporters, including Veronica Guerin, were fined after pleading guilty to illegally publishing taped telephone conversations between John Bruton, the then Fine Gael leader, and party members.