Kemerovo customs opened a criminal case on drug smuggling on a large scale (part 3 of article 229.1 of the Criminal Code) because of the antidepressant bupropion ordered from India by mail. This is reported by RIA Novosti and Novaya Gazeta with reference to local resident Renard Akvila and lawyer Arseniy Levinson.
28-year-old Renard Aquila ordered a parcel in the name of his mother, who on January 10 went to pick up the order, and she was detained. Novaya Gazeta clarifies that Aquila, his mother and grandfather are now witnesses in the case.
“I chose between the order and [Roskomnadzor]. Without treatment, it is simply impossible to exist. But customs said I was a drug dealer. They didn’t even look at the medical documents,” Aquila said.
Bupropion was legally sold in Russia until 2016, but then the drug disappeared from the market, as the manufacturer did not renew the license. Aquila has been treated for schizotypal disorder since 2010. He first tried bupropion in 2018, and the drug helped him unlike other drugs, the young man said.
Russia for sad smugglers. A girl who ordered an antidepressant abroad is threatened with compulsory treatment
In 2019, a drug case was opened against a resident of Yekaterinburg, Darya Belyaeva, who ordered an antidepressant with bupropion from Poland. Six months later, the case was dismissed and Belyaeva was granted the right to rehabilitation.