A public hospital director in China was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for selling over 380,000 pieces of pethidine, making a profit of over a million yuan.
On June 23, the Supreme People’s Court of the Communist Party of China held a press conference to announce 10 typical drug crime cases, with the case of “Su and Drug Trafficking” attracting attention.
The details of the case of “Su and Drug Trafficking” released by the Supreme Court show that Su, born in April 1957, had long served as the director of a certain public hospital and was qualified to prescribe anesthetics and Class I psychoactive drugs.
From January 2013 to December 2021, Su took advantage of his position to purchase a total of 536,180 tablets of pethidine hydrochloride (pethidine) from two pharmaceutical companies in the name of the hospital, which were not stored in the hospital’s warehouse but sold privately at inflated prices.
In addition to selling some to cancer patients, Su sold the remaining approximately 380,000 tablets to an unemployed person, Huang, at prices ranging from 1.5 yuan to 7 yuan per tablet, making a profit of over one million yuan. Subsequently, Huang resold the pethidine tablets acquired from Su at a higher price to individuals with previous drug crime records, namely Yu and Shao (co-defendants who have been convicted).
Su was sentenced to death for drug trafficking and will have the death penalty suspended for two years, with all personal assets confiscated.
Pethidine, also known as meperidine, is a synthetic narcotic analgesic drug. It is mainly used in clinical medicine for pain relief, typically for severe pain such as burns, scalds, and postoperative pain. Prolonged use can lead to dependence and potentially cause severe respiratory depression, posing a life-threatening risk.