A resident of Volgograd became involved in a drug smuggling case due to a package with an antidepressant from a friend.

Astrakhan customs opened a drug smuggling case against Volgograd resident Olga Kalinovskaya, who received a parcel containing the antidepressant bupropion from a friend. The woman told Kommersant that she was taking the drug to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

A criminal case was initiated under Part 3 of Article 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (drug smuggling on an especially large scale), the maximum penalty is up to 20 years in prison. Customs determined that the tablets contained derivatives of the drug ephedrone.

Kalinovskaya has lived in Ukraine since 2008, where she was diagnosed with depressive personality disorder. Suspecting that she had a different diagnosis, the woman turned to a resident of Norway who lives with ADHD and advises people remotely. He diagnosed Kalinovskaya with ADHD and recommended taking bupropion. The woman ordered the drug to Ukraine from India several times, no problems arose.

A few years later, Kalinovskaya returned to Russia, where her diagnosis of ADHD was not confirmed. At the end of December 2019, Kalinovskaya received a notification about the delivery of an unknown parcel from India. She was detained by the police at the post office - the parcel contained 300 bupropion tablets. It turned out that they were sent as a New Year's gift by the same consultant from Norway who knew about her health problems and wanted to help.

According to Kommersant's information, about ten criminal cases have already been opened in Russia regarding drug smuggling due to bupropion, and at least two people are in pre-trial detention center. Since 2012, Russian legislation has introduced the concept of “narcotic derivatives” - this is the name given to substances created by slightly changing the chemical formula of a drug. Initially, the wording was added to the Criminal Code to combat “spice.”

Arseniy Levinson, a legal consultant on drug-related cases and an expert at the Institute of Human Rights, points out that not a single Russian legal act prohibits bupropion from being sold in the Russian Federation and it is not officially stated anywhere that it is considered a drug. In August 2019, the Russian Society of Psychiatrists (RSP) published a statement that bupropion is not a narcotic.

Member of the ROP executive committee Ivan Martynikhin said that bupropion has virtually no analogues and “kills two birds with one stone: it treats depression and acts on the cause - ADHD.” At the same time, bupropion does not have strong side effects, which is important for patients with bipolar depression. The drug can also be prescribed in addition to the main medications to correct side effects.

The first case of drug smuggling due to a parcel with bupropion was opened in April 2019 against a resident of Yekaterinburg, Daria Belyaeva, with depression. The girl ordered the antidepressant Elontril, which contained bupropion. She was charged with smuggling 10.69 grams of ephedrone.

In the fall of 2019, an examination found Belyaeva insane, meaning the charge of drug smuggling was dropped. The case was not closed, and the court has not yet made a decision on compulsory treatment of the girl. In February, the transport police resumed the preliminary investigation into Belyaeva’s case, as the prosecutor’s office found shortcomings in the criminal case.