Is it actually helping others with drug use?, A group of errand runners in Shanghai frequently enter hospitals and pharmacies | drugs | Shanghai
"Others take one pill a day, while you take a dozen or so pills a day. I think you're using drugs, right?"
Despite having doubts in his heart, Li Zheng, the errand runner, still chose to continue working in the face of a profit of several hundred yuan per order. In the following period, he frequently visited major hospitals and pharmacies in Shanghai, claiming to suffer from diseases such as insomnia and depression. He used his ID card to issue second-class psychotropic drugs under national control, and then resold them to others. By the time of the crime, he had already profited over ten thousand yuan from it.
On June 25th, the Supreme People's Procuratorate held a press conference on "Strictly Punishing Drug Crimes in accordance with the Law and Strengthening Comprehensive Drug Control". Yuan Ming, the Director of the Second Procuratorate, introduced that the form of "network+mail" has become an important way of drug trafficking. The Shanghai People's Procuratorate revealed that since 2022, the city's procuratorial organs have accepted and prosecuted more than 200 cases related to drug delivery crimes, accounting for over 40% of all drug crime cases, especially the proportion of cases using new formats such as intelligent express delivery cabinets and local errands to deliver drugs has increased.
How to eliminate the hidden "hidden dangers" in each "small package" tests the relevant management departments.
Running errand guy buys drugs on behalf of others for drug use
Among the drug-related criminal cases handled by the Shanghai procuratorial organs, cross-border delivery accounts for about 58%, inter provincial delivery accounts for about 32%, and local delivery accounts for about 10%. "In drug delivery cases within the same city, about 40% of drugs are trafficked through methods such as' flash delivery ', and there has been a phenomenon of running errands using platforms to receive orders and distribute drugs on behalf of the government to sell nationally controlled psychotropic drugs," said Wu Haiyun, prosecutor of the Second Procuratorate of the Municipal People's Procuratorate.
In recent years, in order to obtain drugs, many drug users have turned their attention to nationally controlled psychotropic drugs, hoping to use them as drugs. These drugs can be used for medical purposes to treat diseases and save lives, but due to their inherent special ingredients, if taken in excess, their harmfulness and addiction are often no different from drugs. However, there are strict restrictions on purchasing psychotropic drugs in our country. In order to bypass these restrictions, some people have thought of finding errand runners to buy them on their behalf.
From July 2020 to November 2021, Hu, a part-time rider on a flash delivery platform in Changning District, fabricated symptoms and fraudulently provided 66 boxes of 933 nationally controlled Class II psychotropic drugs from three hospitals in the city 45 times, knowing that others were using drugs abnormally, in order to obtain illegal benefits. After increasing the price, he privately sold them to individuals who were not using drugs normally. In order to obtain more pills, Hu also found other riders through the flash delivery platform for dispensing.
In Minhang, similar phenomena have developed into a chain of interests. When the Minhang Procuratorate intervened in advance in a case involving the district public security bureau, it found that there was an abnormal collection of psychotropic drugs in the jurisdiction. More than ten prescribers were all running errands registered on a running errand service platform in the district. They then guided the public security organs to investigate and collect evidence, successfully breaking down this chain of interests. After investigation, a total of 13 errand runners were involved, all of whom were convicted by the court.
"In this case, some guys are no longer waiting for orders to be placed before purchasing on their behalf, but consciously purchasing a lot of drugs in advance and selling them at a higher price when someone comes to them," said Yang Wenyan, director of the Second Prosecutor's Department of Minhang Procuratorate. Compared with traditional express delivery companies, C2C express delivery companies, which mainly operate errand services, are a new business model. Online platforms mainly provide transaction channels and charge transaction fees, and their ability to review orders is not strong. At the same time, the management of practitioners is loose, and individuals only need to register with their mobile phone numbers to accept orders. The platform lacks other regulatory measures for them. "Some large food delivery platforms also have errand services, but they have interception functions in their backend, making it impossible for users to search for and place orders to purchase nationally controlled psychotropic drugs. However, in new delivery companies, there is a general lack of legal awareness, which provides opportunities for drug users to take advantage of."
New types of drugs emerge endlessly, increasing regulatory difficulty
In addition to some loopholes in platform regulation itself, objectively speaking, in recent years, new types of drugs have been constantly evolving and emerging, which has also brought many difficulties to regulation. When analyzing the prominent characteristics of current drug crimes, the Supreme People's Procuratorate pointed out that the names and types of new synthetic drugs are constantly being updated, making them more camouflaged, covert, and confusing. From "smart drugs", "twigs", "stamps" to "kawa trendy drinks" and "top electronic cigarettes", it is indeed difficult to distinguish these new types of drugs from their appearance alone.
"The other party said that this medicine is very safe, but I never expected it to contain drug ingredients." At the end of 2020, a female college student named Wang, who was struggling with weight loss, accidentally saw Zhang selling an imported weight loss drug called "Blue Fatty" on her social media. Out of trust in his friend, Wang immediately bought a box, but after taking it, he developed symptoms such as thirst, excitement, and reluctance to eat or sleep. At that time, Wang only felt that it was a sequelae of weight loss pills and was unaware that it contained the national first-class controlled psychotropic drug Anfilazone.
Recently, the Hongkou Procuratorate disclosed a drug trafficking case. In March 2023, a "post-95s" young man named Gao received a package from abroad containing some instant noodles and snacks. But Gao had just opened the package, and the police immediately came to arrest him. They found a bag of brown liquid in the packaging of the instant noodles, which was actually cannabis smoke oil disguised as seasoning oil. After arriving at the case, Gao admitted to purchasing marijuana e-liquid from overseas and explained that he had met a friend of the same age, Liu, through a friend's introduction. Liu claimed that he had channels to purchase a type of "top electronic cigarette". Out of curiosity, Gao and Liu discussed buying together to try it out. Gao paid more than 3000 yuan, and Liu contacted them to purchase marijuana oil and sent it overseas to Gao's residence. After investigation, the involved cannabis smoke oil weighs about 5g and has been identified to contain tetrahydrocannabinol components. "Disguising as a seasoning bag is to cover up and not be discovered," Gao confessed after arriving at the case.
The prosecutor introduced that tetrahydrocannabinol, as the most important component of cannabinoids, is the culprit of marijuana hallucination. It is a first class psychotropic drug under control in China and belongs to a new type of drug. Smuggling and trafficking tetrahydrocannabinol constitute crimes. At present, both Gao and Liu have been prosecuted.
"Nowadays, drug crimes have gradually formed the characteristic of sending and delivering in the circulation process, and criminals are no longer limited to traditional drug addicts and traffickers. Logistics practitioners and mail senders and receivers may become part of the criminal chain." The prosecutor explained that in drug-related cases handled, some express delivery and errand runners take risks for economic interests, but there are also many people who do become drug traffickers without their knowledge. When handling a case, prosecutors will comprehensively consider whether they subjectively know that it is a drug and carefully judge whether it constitutes a crime.
How to plug management loopholes?
Due to meritorious reporting, Hu was ultimately sentenced to 3 years in prison with a three-year probation by the Changning Court. After returning to work, he became a volunteer propagandist. Not only does it take advantage of every errand opportunity to distribute anti drug promotional stickers to customers, reminding them to take medication in moderation, but it also serves as a delivery safety supervisor at the station, educating and guiding other riders to report illegal delivery and drug-related clues. "Under his influence, three delivery boys reported abnormal delivery situations to the public security and procuratorial organs, and one of the clues helped the public security organs detect drug-related crimes," said Cheng Xuesong, director of the Second Prosecutor's Department of Changning Procuratorate.
In addition, prosecutors from the Changning Procuratorate have conducted propaganda and governance at 12 flash delivery stations in their jurisdiction, reaching over 500 young men. The prosecutor used the time of the daily morning meeting at the delivery station to popularize knowledge about new drugs to the delivery boys. At the morning meeting, they led the boys to read the "Safe Delivery Proposal" together, guiding them to put the delivery standards and work responsibility into their minds. Online, self-made anti drug promotional micro videos and micro courses were pushed to the responsible persons of each site.
"For the young man who handles orders, sometimes even if the package is opened for inspection, the hidden drug trafficking behavior cannot be detected. However, as long as the process of real name collection and inspection is strictly followed, it can deter some criminals and provide convenience for the public security organs to solve cases in the future." The prosecutor said.
Prevention mainly needs to start from the regulatory authorities and the enterprise side. According to statistics, since 2022, the procuratorial organs in the city have been actively fulfilling their duties in accordance with the law in response to drug crimes in the delivery channels, and have issued more than 20 suggestions for social governance. At present, the Shanghai procuratorial organs have established and improved mechanisms for information sharing, clue transfer, and collaborative disposal with departments such as postal management, public security, drug control, and customs. They have jointly signed the "Implementation Opinions on Further Strengthening the Safety Management of Mail and Express Delivery" in this city, actively promoted the governance of the postal industry, consolidated the main responsibility for the safety of postal enterprises, and promoted the implementation of the three systems of "real name receiving and sending, receiving and sending inspection, and machine passing security inspection".
The Minhang Procuratorate has issued a "Procuratorial Recommendation" to platform enterprises, proposing 7 measures such as setting sensitive words to intercept orders for prohibited items, strengthening substantive review of order content, and using big data and monitoring technology to verify the identity information of practitioners. It has also made a public announcement to express delivery enterprises and industry regulatory departments. The suggested unit's written response will prevent such incidents from happening again from three aspects: improving management systems, regulatory processes, and compliance training. After receiving a response, the prosecutor ensured the effective implementation of the prosecution's suggestions through platform ordering operations, on-site visits, and holding discussions to listen to opinions. Currently, the platform has banned the errand business of ordering prohibited items.
