Prosecutors said on Sunday that they charged television celebrity Lee Yoon-ji, better known by her stage name Amy, with drug abuse while she was on probation period for a similar charge.



The Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office indicted the 32-year-old without detention for an unauthorized intake of Zolpidem pills. The celebrity took 15 pills out of a total of 85 pills that she had received from a female peer whom she met at a probation office late last year. The peer was also charged, prosecutors said.



Zolpidem, a antipsychotic medication used to treat sleeping disorders, can cause serious side effects such as hallucinations, and therefore requires a doctor’s prescription.



Amy (Yonhap)



“(The office) indicted her without detention because she turned out to have (at least) quit injecting propofol,” the prosecutors’ office stated, referring to Lee’s previous abuse of propofol, another kind of antipsychotic drug.



Back in 2012, Lee was sentenced to a two-year prison term with a stay of eight months on allegations of illegally injecting the psychotropic drug propofol multiple times.



In addition, the prosecutors’ statement pointed out that not all of the Zolpidem pills that the celebrity took were obtained illegally.



“Out of all Zolpidem pills that she took since June last year, only the ones she took from November to December were obtained without a doctor’s prescription,” the prosecutors’ office stated.



Lee, debuted in 2008, has gained popularity through a cable television reality show called “Bad Girls’ Diary.”



By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)