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No prosecution on cancer patient buying cheap pills overseas

2015-02-28 09:12 CRIENGLISH.com Web Editor: Qian Ruisha
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Leukemia patient Lu Yong in jail in Yuanjiang, Hunan province, in this 2014 file photo, after he was detained by police for allegedly selling counterfeit drugs. (Photo: China Daily/Hong Kefei)

Leukemia patient Lu Yong in jail in Yuanjiang, Hunan province, in this 2014 file photo, after he was detained by police for allegedly selling counterfeit drugs. (Photo: China Daily/Hong Kefei)

A local procuratorate in the city of Yuanjiang in South China's Hunan Province has decided not to prosecute a leukemia patient for helping his fellow patients buy unapproved drugs from abroad.

46-year-old Lu Yong was accused of selling counterfeit drugs and credit card fraud and was detained by the police in Hunan.

According to the procuratorate, although purchasing medications unapproved by Chinese authorities is regarded as illegal, Lu did not sell those drugs to make profits, meaning that the accusation of 'selling counterfeit drugs' did not apply.

Furthermore, although Lu's act of purchasing and using other people's debit cards violated relevant rules, his aim was just to buy the anticarcinogens for leukemia patients, which prosecutors decided did not in itself consitute criminal behavior.

Lu, who suffered from leukemia in 2002, began taking the Swiss made drug Gleevec which could cost him 23,500 yuan, or about 3,757 US dollars, for each box.

Two years later, Lu began purchasing and taking the Indian-made drug Veenat, which had the same effect as Gleevec but only cost him 4000 yuan, or 640 US dollars, each box.

Then Veenat became popular among Lu's fellow patients following his recommendation on the Internet.

In this way, Lu started to help hundreds of his fellow patients buy those unapproved drugs from India via one of 3 debit cards he had bought online.

According to the law, those in illegal possession up to 5 credit cards of other people can be penalized.

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