We’ve got an update after a five-year-old case when authorities raided the Wise Owl Animal Clinic in Tamuning. Public Health then seized several controlled and non-controlled substances from the clinic – they believed that proprietor, Dr. Joel Joseph, did not have an up to date controlled substance registration.
Those drugs were recently returned to Wise Owl to be destroyed. But, Dr. Joseph argues not everything was returned. A recent effort was made to return most of the previously seized drugs to Dr. Joel Joseph’s Wise Owl Animal Hospital for their destruction.
But, upon public health and the Attorney General’s Office return, and after reviewing the chain of custody receipts, Dr. Joseph claims that something was amiss. “They brought over the chain of custody papers that are inaccurate, not completely filled out. There are things missing on them. We noticed at the time when they brought these drugs, that there are twenty-two of Special K missing,” he said.
“Special K” is a common street name for the drug Ketamine, which is used as an anesthetic. “The inventory when they took it says 1 Bottle, 1 Box, 1 Box” which is exactly what we had when they took them. There was a loose bottle, two cases, boxes, with twelve bottles each in them,” he said.
But in a response made by DPHSS officials, it states: “The destruction of most of the drugs included all of the Ketamil that were seized: Three (3) bottles each of 50ml of Ketamil. Two of the Ketamil bottles were found in their own separate box packages; each box containing a single 50ml bottle, as indicated on the package. The third 50ml bottle of Ketamil was found without its box package.”
The chain of custody receipt does indicate that two boxes and one bottle were taken, but it does not clearly identify the quantity contained in each box. However, Dr. Joseph is still adamant about the missing bottles.
Also, he said, “When we got all done, we double checked everything. Not only did they not have the twenty-two bottles of Ketamine, they had none of the Diazepam, Valium”.
Public health does not address Diazepam in their statement, but both drugs do possess a relatively high street market value.
And Dr. Joseph doesn’t plan on letting this go, asking, “Who took these drugs and where did they go?”
Both parties made an appearance before Judge Anita Sukola’s courtroom today and are scheduled to continue the destruction of the remaining drugs next week.