In the Urals, a girl ordered an antidepressant online, which has no analogues in Russia. She faces up to 20 years in prison

A resident of Yekaterinburg, Daria Belyaeva, who, according to her, was diagnosed with a mental disorder, ordered an antidepressant via the Internet after consulting a doctor. Instead of medicine, the girl was charged with drug smuggling. Since 2016, bupropion, as the drug is called, has been excluded from the Russian drug register, and customs officials say that it may contain the substances of the narcotic ephedrone. Are there any legal analogues in Russia and what should a defense be based on in such cases? “Such cases” were discussed with a psychotherapist and a lawyer.

What happened

A 24-year-old resident of Yekaterinburg, Daria Belyaeva, diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder, became involved in a criminal case under Part 3 of Article 229.1 of the Criminal Code (drug smuggling on an especially large scale) after she ordered 30 bupropion tablets on the Internet. The punishment provided for in this article is “imprisonment for a term of 10 to 20 years with a fine in the amount of up to one million rubles or in the amount of wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to three years, or without it and with restriction of freedom for a period of up to one year.” or without it."

One of the first to report on Belyaeva’s case was the public on VKontakte PSY.WEB, which unites people with mental disorders. The post says that since 2012, Belyaeva has been seeing a psychiatrist; during treatment, she was prescribed antidepressants, antipsychotics and anxiolytics.

A month ago, after “consulting with a doctor,” the girl decided to order bupropion, an antidepressant that is a selective dopamine reuptake inhibitor (unlike most drugs that act only on serotonin). Belyaeva found a website where bupropion was sold under the trade name Elontril, and she paid for the purchase with her bank card. Since 2016, bupropion has been excluded from the Russian register of medicines.

The drug was brought from Poland; on April 8, Belyaeva went to pick it up from the Russian Post office and was detained there by customs officers. The Customs Department drew up a conclusion in which it indicated that bupropion is not included in any lists of narcotic or prohibited drugs, but is a derivative of ephedrone, which is included in the corresponding lists. A representative of the press service of the Ural Customs Administration told E1.ru that this “substance is used by drug addicts to stimulate the andrenergic system,” but did not explain which substance he was talking about.

At the moment, Belyaeva is charged with smuggling 10.69 grams of ephedrone. Belyaeva told TJournal that she was released on her own recognizance. “Such Cases” tried to contact Belyaeva’s lawyer Irina Ruchko, but she was unavailable.

An indispensable drug

Unfortunately, neither the original bupropion nor its generics are registered in Russia, notes psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Candidate of Medical Sciences Vitalina Burova, in a conversation with Takiye Dela. “As a psychotherapist, I work with several patients who are seen by a psychiatrist outside of Russia, and I see people who take bupropion. I think that a number of my Russian patients would also be very suitable for bupropion, but I am not able to prescribe it for them,” she says.

“prohibit and not let in” is not a very adequate measure

Bupropion is used not only as an antidepressant, but also as a drug for the treatment of nicotine addiction. It does not cause weight gain and does not cause sexual dysfunction, unlike many other antidepressants, the expert says.

There are different groups of antidepressants, the most popular being selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Also, Burova comments, dual-action drugs that affect both serotonin and norepinephrine, the so-called SNRIs, serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, are popular. Bupropion affects the reuptake of norepinephrine and dopamine; no other drug with a similar effect has been registered in Russia.

“Not everyone is suitable for drugs from the group of SSRIs and SNRIs. So “to ban and not release” a drug with a rather unique profile, approved for use as an antidepressant and/or drug for the treatment of tobacco addiction, is not a very adequate measure,” comments Burova.

Since 2001, bupropion has been registered, for example, in France as a drug for the treatment of tobacco addiction. In the Netherlands, it has been approved for use in the treatment of depression in adults since 2007. In the United States, bupropion is considered to have a low abuse potential.

The problem of man himself

“If a foreign drug is registered in another country, but is banned or discontinued in our country, or its circulation is limited by any other methods, it should under no circumstances be purchased. If a person did not know about this, this is the problem of the person himself,” says Nikolai Chernyshuk, head of the public organization “Center for the Protection of Citizens’ Rights in the Healthcare Sphere “Right to Health.”

The only thing that the defense can appeal to in such cases is that the person did not know about it and he had indications for the use of this drug, if only it could help in treating the disease, as prescribed by a doctor, the lawyer comments. In the latter case, however, the hands will go to the doctor who prescribed the unregistered drug.

“But if a person bought it himself, in his own opinion, because he read something on the Internet, there are no recommendations or prescriptions, it will be very difficult,” sums up Chernyshuk.

This is not the first time similar stories have happened in Russia. In the summer of 2018, the mother of a child with a disability, Ekaterina Konnova, was charged under the “anti-drug” Article 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for attempting to resell the anti-seizure drug Dizepam, which her son did not need. Since 2013, it has been included in the list of psychotropic substances with restricted circulation, which Konnova, according to her, did not know about. The charge was later dropped.

In the same year, an American living in Moscow, Gaylen Grandstaff, ordered gamma-butyrolactone on the Internet, a powerful detergent and solvent that also has psychotropic side effects. Since 2012, it has been on the Russian list of substances prohibited for free distribution.