In an extraordinary new twist in the case of a pharmacist found guilty of trafficking hospital cocaine, judges have now ruled that the 50-year-old woman can return to work.
Margarida Pires de Lima is simply barred from working in the Coimbra University Hospital, from which she was originally accused of having stolen 500 grams of the drug.
“From this moment my client can return to exercising her profession,” lawyer Rodrigo Santos told reporters – adding that the objective is to see her eventually returning to her old job at the hospital.
It’s a ruling that also annuls an order from the Pharmacists’ Association to pay €30,000 in damages.
As the Supreme Administrative Court heard this week, Pires de Lima has repaid only €304 – the value of just 42 grams of cocaine which, in the end, is all judges decided she must have stolen.
The fact that hospitals store cocaine at all may surprise readers, but it is used to treat terminally-ill patients at final stage.
Pires de Lima was caught on CCTV taking a quantity of the drug, but it wasn’t clear how much she had taken.
According to newspapers, even though she was cocaine-dependant at the time, no one could have consumed 500 grams of the drug – and as Pires de Lima denied the charges, they were reduced to involve just 42 grams. Even so, judges ruled she must have sold some of the drug to third parties.
The case was adjudicated in 2012 and since then Pires de Lima has been unemployed.
