Today (March 4th), the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate jointly issued the Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in Handling Criminal Cases Endangering Drug Safety, which comprehensively and systematically stipulated the conviction and sentencing standards of related crimes, and proposed solutions to the legal application problems that have been highlighted in judicial practice. The Interpretation mainly clarifies the following issues:
First, severely punish the crime of counterfeit and inferior drugs according to law.The "Interpretation" emphasizes that the production, sale and provision of counterfeit and inferior drugs, in which the drugs involved are mainly used by pregnant women, children and critically ill patients, are used to deal with emergencies such as natural disasters, accidents, public health incidents and social security incidents, or drug users and their staff produce and sell counterfeit and inferior drugs, should be severely punished as appropriate; Whoever produces, sells or provides fake drugs causes death or has other particularly serious circumstances shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years until death; Whoever produces, sells or provides inferior drugs has especially serious consequences shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years or life imprisonment.
The second is to severely punish crimes that hinder drug management according to law.The crime of obstructing drug administration is an added crime in the 11th Amendment of Criminal Law. The Interpretation clarifies the specific situation that the threshold for the crime of obstructing drug management is "enough to seriously endanger human health", focusing on punishing illegal production and sale of drugs, including "black workshops". The Interpretation stipulates that a "black workshop" that has not obtained the relevant approval documents for drugs produces drugs or knowingly sells them, and the indications, functional indications or components of the drugs involved are unknown, which can constitute a crime of obstructing drug management; If the drugs involved are identified as counterfeit and inferior drugs according to law, they may also constitute crimes of producing and selling counterfeit drugs, producing and selling inferior drugs and other crimes with heavier punishment.
The third is to severely punish the crime of illegally purchasing and selling fraudulent drugs according to law.Medical insurance fund is the "life-saving money" of the people, which is related to the vital interests of the broad masses. In view of the current problem of using medical insurance to cheat and buy drugs and resell them for profit, the judicial organs have implemented the criminal policy of combining leniency with severity, focusing on punishing the organizers of medical insurance fraud crimes, professional insurance fraudsters and those who cheat medical insurance funds by taking advantage of their positions and occupations. The "Interpretation" further clarifies that those who knowingly illegally purchase and sell drugs purchased by using medical insurance fraud, with an amount of more than 50,000 yuan, will be convicted and punished for concealing and concealing the crime;Whoever instigates, instigates or instructs others to use medical insurance to defraud and buy drugs, and then illegally purchase and sell them, shall be convicted and punished for fraud.
The Interpretation will come into force on March 6, 2022. The "two highs" will guide local people’s courts and people’s procuratorates to strictly implement the provisions of the criminal law and judicial interpretation, give full play to the role of judicial functions, earnestly safeguard the people’s drug safety and life health, and continuously strengthen the judicial protection of people’s livelihood.