South Korean rapper and singer-songwriter Psy, who garnered international stardom with his 2012 hit "Gangnam Style," is the subject of a police investigation after he allegedly received prescriptions for Xanax and Stilnox through a third party.
As reported by The Korea Herald on Thursday (Aug. 28), the Seoul Seodaemun Police Station launched an investigation into the 48-year-old and the hospital doctor involved with allegedly distributing the drugs to a third party. They said that, if the allegations are true, Psy and the unnamed doctor violated the Medical Service Act because the drugs were allegedly distributed without the required in-person hospital visits.
Psy, who was previously diagnosed with a chronic sleep disorder, allegedly had his manager and various others pick up the prescriptions on his behalf. Police received a tip from someone at the university hospital and raided the site to get medical records. Prescriptions can only be issued after direct consultation in South Korea, and patients are prohibited from getting someone else to collect any drugs for them.
Additionally, since Xanax and Stilnox are classified as psychotropic drugs with various risks associated, in-person oversight for any prescriptions is required. The unnamed doctor claimed that they were prescribed after Psy had remote consultations. Psy's management company, P Nation, took partial responsibility for the accusations in a statement.
"It is undeniably a mistake and negligence that a third party picked up prescription sleeping pills on his behalf," said the agency, per The Korea Times. "There were cases where sleeping pills were collected by a third party, and the police are currently investigating." They added, however, that there was "no unlawful proxy prescription."
The last time Psy ran into legal issues was in 2001, when he was arrested for marijuana possession. He was fined and sentenced to 25 days in jail, which he said led to him missing his grandfather's funeral. The news of the police investigation comes less than a month after the trailer for Apple TV+'s new competition series KPopped debuted, in which he stars opposite Megan Thee Stallion.