[6] A shop owner was sentenced for using poppy shells; how should one adapt to inconsistent regulatory handling?

"Boiled Bony Fish", "Youting Crucian Carp", "Spicy Hot Pot"... These are favorite dishes for many. However, to attract repeat customers, some restaurant owners have resorted to illegal means by adding poppy pod powder to these food bases. Recently, the Chongqing Hechuan District People's Court heard such a case.

The court found through trial that starting in 2013, Li and Chen, seeking illegal profits, knowingly purchased poppy husks from Yang and Tang, which are explicitly prohibited non-food ingredients by the state, and ground them into powder to make base and oil materials. Chen used these in his "Yang's Haoyu Fish Restaurant" and Li in his "Hechuan District Dongkou Youting Crucian Carp Restaurant," incorporating the poppy husk powder into dishes like "Boiled Haoyu Fish" and "Youting Crucian Carp" for customers. The Hechuan District Branch of the Chongqing Food and Drug Administration inspected Li's and Chen's restaurants on June 12, 2014, and October 18, 2014, respectively, collecting hotpot base and mixed spices. Tests revealed morphine, narcotine, and papaverine in the spices and bases from both locations.

Recently, the Hechuan Court sentenced Li and Chen to one year in prison, suspended for one year and six months, and fined them 20,000 yuan each for producing and selling toxic and harmful food. During the probation period, they are prohibited from engaging in food production, sales, or related activities.

(Hualong Net)

Multiple legal provisions govern poppy husk regulation, requiring comprehensive consideration and evidence-based law enforcement.

In practice, law enforcement agencies handle suspected poppy husk food safety cases differently, with some resulting in fines and others in imprisonment. In fact, for illegally adding poppy husks to food, producers may face at least five criminal charges under relevant laws.

First, according to the Public Security Punishment Law, illegally transporting, trading, storing, or using small amounts of poppy husks results in detention for 10 to 15 days and a possible fine of up to 3,000 yuan; for minor cases, detention for up to 5 days or a fine of up to 500 yuan.

Secondly, according to the Food Safety Law, producers are suspected of using non-food raw materials to produce food, or adding chemicals other than food additives and other substances that may harm human health to food, or using recycled food as raw materials to produce food.

Furthermore, it may also involve three other charges under the Criminal Law, the Narcotics Control Law, and the Public Security Administration Punishments Law: "the crime of instigating, luring, or deceiving others into drug use," "the crime of illegal possession of drugs," and "the crime of producing and selling toxic and harmful food."

However, in practice, determining the crime of producing and selling toxic and harmful food is not simple, and establishing charges such as "instigating, luring, or deceiving others into drug use" and "illegal possession of drugs" requires specific quantities, circumstances, and other conditions. Each of these charges has its own constitutive elements for a crime, and if a crime is to be determined, great caution is needed. Even for public security penalties, sufficient and solid evidence is required. Therefore, in reality, cases with different judgments for similar situations may be related to the "enforcement theme" of "campaign-style law enforcement." Cases resulting in convictions are likely those that were targeted as "typical examples" during periods of intensified crackdowns on food safety crimes.

Thus, when handling such cases, law enforcement agencies should comprehensively consider the circumstances of producers who illegally add poppy shells to food, and enforce the law based on evidence. Theoretically, such cases may involve all these charges, but in specific cases, the outcome depends on the investigation results and evidence. Mechanical and simplistic enforcement, as well as crude "campaign-style enforcement," should be avoided, as they cause greater harm to society.