Tom Dawson, the Christchurch sports medicine doctor who prescribed what police call a "date rape" drug, says he has done no wrong.
He said at the weekend that he was distressed to hear the Fantasy-like drug GBL he prescribed to a patient was used by a sex offender to stupefy two
teenage girls before he raped them.
Dr Dawson, who works at Sportsmed at the QEII sports stadium, said he focused on lifestyle and "drug-free" alternatives, and described the whole affair as a tragedy.
He gave evidence for the Crown at last week's High Court trial of David James Shepherd, who was found guilty on Friday night of stupefying two girls with a cocktail of drugs and alcohol, then raping them.
Interim name suppression on Dr Dawson was lifted on Thursday.
Dr Dawson said he prescribed gamma butyrolactone (GBL) to Shepherd's partner, Tui Shepherd, between November and January because she was having sleeping problems.
She was one of three workers at the Christchurch inner-city massage parlour Felicity's for whom he prescribed the drug.
The Crown claimed that the GBL Dr Dawson prescribed to Ms Shepherd was one of the drugs used by her partner to stupefy the girls.
"I was distressed to hear that the GBL I had prescribed had been abused to such a sickening extent," he said.
But, after "a great deal of soul searching" and discussion with colleagues, Dr Dawson felt he had done no wrong.
Although GBL was not an approved or registered medicine, neither was it illegal or banned at the time he prescribed it. It became a prescription-only medicine in mid-January, along with Fantasy (GHB).
The chairwoman of the Medical Association, Pippa MacKay, said that although Dr Dawson had not done anything illegal, most doctors would describe his conduct as unprofessional. That he had made a substantial mark-up on his bottles of GBL posed a difficult ethical dilemma.
Dr Dawson, who went bankrupt in December 1999, said he made a $15 profit on each bottle, but this was taken off his consultation charge.
Stewart Jessamine, senior adviser at Medsafe, the Health Ministry's medicine regulatory arm, said there was little or no information about GBL's effectiveness as a treatment for sleeplessness.
No registered medicines contained GBL, said Mr Jessamine, and the ministry was trying to find out who had supplied Dr Dawson.
The United States Food and Drug Administration said that GBL was sometimes used in dietary supplements, but the agency had received reports of potentially life-threatening health problems.
- NZPA
Tom Dawson, the Christchurch sports medicine doctor who prescribed what police call a "date rape" drug, says he has done no wrong.
He said at the weekend that he was distressed to hear the Fantasy-like drug GBL he prescribed to a patient was used by a sex offender to stupefy two
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