"It has become worse, but it is dangerous to order": the State Duma is asked to deal with criminal cases on the purchase of antidepressants

State Duma Deputy Yaroslav Nilov appealed to the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of Health with a request to investigate why criminal proceedings were initiated against Russians for the purchase and movement of an antidepressant based on bupropion not prohibited in Russia. Customs officers have recently begun to equate it to ephedron, included in the list of prohibited substances.

According to the parliamentarian, the reason for the deputy's request was the appeal to him of the initiative group of citizens who are in dire need of this medicine, suddenly found themselves under an unspoken ban.

In the appeal with which RT was familiarized, members of the initiative group asked the deputy to find out the grounds on which criminal cases were initiated on the acquisition of a non-prohibited drug. They also propose, if necessary, to amend federal legislation so that law-abiding citizens who need medical treatment are not held criminally liable for drug smuggling.

The appeal also notes that bupropion has no analogues and in many cases there is no alternative to its use.

“The drug is one of the most frequently prescribed antidepressants in the world due to its high proven efficacy. For many in Russia, it is the only alternative means of treating their mental illnesses. At the same time, a simple person will never be able to guess what substance they can recognize as a derivative and equate to a drug, ”the authors of the appeal write.

Nilov notes that law enforcers and earlier initiated criminal cases because of drugs that citizens use for medical purposes.

“We need to understand whether criminal cases are lawfully brought against those who buy and consume bupropion,” said the deputy. - Previously, there were already cases when citizens tried to unreasonably bring to justice. Everyone remembers the resonant history of Ekaterina Konnova, who was accused of drug trafficking when she tried to sell the surplus of a psychotropic drug not registered in Russia that her child was taking. ”

Considered derivative

Until 2016, drugs based on bupropion were freely sold in Russian pharmacies, but were later excluded from the list of medicines, since the importer did not renew the license. However, no ban on the ordering of drugs abroad was imposed.

As RT found out, in the spring of 2019, customs officers and law enforcement officers began to harass citizens who buy drugs based on bupropion in foreign online stores, which are not officially on the list of drugs banned in Russia.

One of the first criminal cases under the article on smuggling of drugs (according to part 3 of article 229.1 of the Criminal Code) was initiated against Yekaterinburg resident Darya Belyayeva suffering from schizotypal personality disorder.

As RT reported, a criminal case was opened against Belyaev after she ordered the antidepressant Elontril in Poland, which includes bupropion. Both the pills themselves and the bupropion did not appear in the list of substances prohibited for importation, but during the examination it was established that it is theoretically possible to make drugs from them.

Thus, the forensic service of the customs administration concluded that the product can be regarded as a derivative of ephedron. Is it possible to get ephedrone from these pills, not indicated in conclusion.

For the purchase of one package of the drug (30 tablets), the girl faces up to 20 years in prison.

The case of Belyaeva was not the only one. According to a RT source in law enforcement, such criminal cases are now being investigated in Moscow, the Volgograd region, on Sakhalin and in other regions.

Moreover, in some cases, the Russians ordered the drug not in abroad, but in Russian online stores. They eventually became defendants in criminal cases under Part 2 of Art. 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Acquisition and storage of narcotic drugs without the purpose of sale”). They face imprisonment of up to ten years.

At the same time, deliveries of bupropion to Russia have practically ceased. Together with the buyers, law enforcement officers detained one of the largest sellers, who himself ordered the drug abroad in bulk, and then distributed it with a surcharge in Russia.

"What will happen next, I do not know"

The drug-receiving citizens of the Russian Federation say that they are in a hopeless situation. According to them, other antidepressants do not help them.

“In 2015, I ended up in a psychiatric hospital with a diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder,” says RT Vladislav Lebedev. - Treated with neuroleptics, tricyclics. However, the condition only worsened: I could not read, work, study. At some point, I decided to be treated with bupropion and have taken it so far. During this time I was even able to master a new profession. Without bupropion, I’ll turn into a limp vegetable — there’s simply nothing to replace it with. ”

The termination of the supply of the drug, according to interlocutors RT, has already led to a deterioration of health.

“For five years I have suffered from derealization and fibromyalgia,” explains Yaroslav Goncharuk in a conversation with RT. - I constantly feel weakness, muscles all over my body often hurt. I tried many antidepressants and other drugs that are used in such cases, but the combination of bupropion, SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) and lamotrigine was ideal in my case. Now I do not accept bupropion, because it has become dangerous to order it. I felt worse, and what to do, I do not know. While drugs are freely sold and bought on the Internet, our police increase the statistics on the detection of unhappy sick people like Darya Belyaeva. ”

“I fell ill in the spring of 2009,” recalls one of the signatories to Nilov in a conversation with RT, asking not to be named. - Over the years I tried a lot of different drugs - there was no positive effect. On the contrary, there was muscle weakness and burning pain in the whole body. Only a year ago, a new psychiatrist recommended me bupropion and two more drugs, and this finally saved me from pain. Now bupropion began to disappear from the stores, and without it the whole scheme of maintenance therapy does not make sense. The pills are over, and now I'm flying back to the abyss. What will happen to me next, I do not know. "

The medicine must be available.

Experts note that it is incorrect to raise the question of finding analogues of bupropion or another substance if the medicine helps the sick.

“When people die because they cannot get a pain killer, it’s unnatural,” comments Oleg Zykov, director of the Institute for Drug Abuse Nation Health. - The task of the officials is to make the medicine available, and there is no need to look for any analogues. Of course, it is possible to discuss the narcotism of various substances, but this is not common sense when it comes to helping the sick. ”

The head of the independent expert examination bureau, the expert of the Constitutional and Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, Yuri Gladyshev, believes that in order to avoid criminal prosecution of citizens purchasing drugs for treatment, the term “derivatives of narcotic drugs” should be excluded from criminal law.

“Many substances, including bupropion, are not officially banned, but citizens are regularly brought to court for their acquisition,” explains Gladyshev RT. “The concept of“ derivatives ”is not explained in the law, which ultimately allows law enforcement officers to consider them derivatives of prohibited ones.”