Thoughts on "Medicine"
In recent days, "medicine" has become a hot topic. First, a film called *Dying to Survive* (hereinafter referred to as *The Drug God*) exploded, with box office earnings climbing steadily. Then, "vaccines"—a type of "medicine" meant to prevent people from needing medication in the future—came as a heavy blow. These two kinds of "medicine," one that cures diseases and one that fails to prevent them, one foreign-made and one Chinese-made, have sparked sharply contrasting attitudes among the public. People deeply sympathize with the protagonist Cheng Yong in the film, who ends up in prison for trafficking so-called "fake drugs" from India, while they vehemently detest the substandard, ineffective, and fraudulent vaccines produced by the domestic Changsheng company.
Poster of the film *Dying to Survive* (Image source: Internet)
The attitude of the vast majority of the public in society is conscience, but conscience may not bring about good laws, nor may it gain protection from virtuous law enforcers. This is fully demonstrated in the public's sharply different attitudes toward these two kinds of "medicine."
In "Dying to Survive," Cheng Yong sells imported generic drugs that are not only harmless but also effective in treating leukemia. Many patients see the drug as a lifeline, but Cheng Yong is ultimately convicted of selling counterfeit drugs. How can "real medicine" become "fake medicine" in the eyes of the law? Because there are issues with China's criminal law and drug administration law. Article 141 of China's Criminal Law states: "The term 'counterfeit drugs' as used in this article refers to drugs and non-drugs that are classified as counterfeit or treated as counterfeit under the provisions of the Drug Administration Law of the People's Republic of China." The Criminal Law delegates the definition of counterfeit drugs to the Drug Administration Law, and Article 48, Paragraph 3, Item (2) of the Drug Administration Law stipulates: "Drugs that must be approved but are produced or imported without approval, or that must be tested but are sold without testing, in accordance with this law." According to these two legal provisions, all imported real drugs, no matter how effective or urgently needed by the public, constitute a crime if privately imported and sold without government approval. "Dying to Survive" is a film that uses artistic exaggeration to depict the scene where patients voluntarily see off Cheng Yong as he is taken into custody. At that moment, we feel the tension between human sentiment and the law. Although the rule of law ultimately prevails over sentiment and its authority is upheld, a scene where an elderly patient tearfully pleads with a police officer is heartbreaking: "I've been sick for three years. I've taken the genuine drug, which costs 40,000 yuan a bottle, for three years. My house is gone, my family is bankrupted by my illness. Which family can avoid having a sick person? Can you guarantee you won't get sick in your lifetime?" Instead, we feel that human sentiment seems to have been consumed by the rule of law.
After discussing "fake drugs," let's look at so-called "real drugs." A listed pharmaceutical company, the second-largest vaccine producer in China, produced rabies vaccines that cannot effectively prevent rabies and children's vaccines that fail to prevent diseases, yet they have been circulating openly in society for years. The government and courts knew about the flow of these substandard vaccines over a year ago and began handling the matter, but the "problem vaccines" are still being flaunted. Even more infuriating, before this public outcry, the local government only imposed fines for what should have been criminal offenses. Many netizens exclaim: "Fining counterfeiters a few hundred thousand yuan as a warning is just a drop in the bucket compared to their profits, and the result is that counterfeiting only intensifies," and "Where is our safety guarantee? All we can hope for now is that the vaccines are not problematic, even if they are ineffective."
Vaccine (Image source: Internet)
One real, one fake; one light, one heavy—we are confused: What is wrong with the law?
We can't help but wonder further: now that many Chinese parents know the vaccines are ineffective, will they strongly call for imported vaccines? If someone like Cheng Yong in "Dying to Survive" imports and sells officially unapproved vaccines from abroad, should they still be sentenced?
What we can hope for now is to improve legislation and strengthen law enforcement. The expanding scope of what the law defines as "fake drugs" will harm the innocent, and good citizens may easily fall into legal traps. Meanwhile, law enforcement departments and officers who substitute fines for criminal penalties and engage in malfeasance will allow counterfeiters who deserve severe punishment to remain at large! Relying on conscience is not as good as relying on good laws, and the realization of good laws requires kind law enforcers to uphold and defend them. Only when a universal sense of justice permeates every cell of the rule of law can social justice be ultimately achieved.
