Legal Daily All-Media Reporter Deng Xinjian Deng Jun Correspondent Zhang Weitao
Herbal tea A popular drink in Guangzhou. For many people who live and work in Guangzhou, herbal tea is an indispensable necessity, just like old fire soup and delicious food. Get angry and drink herbal tea; Sore throat, drink herbal tea; If you have a cold, you should drink herbal tea! Many neighborhoods believe in "seeing a doctor for a serious illness and drinking herbal tea for a minor illness", and even use it as a summer drink. They think herbal tea is made of Chinese herbal medicines, so it’s okay to drink more. As everyone knows, in order to make a profit, some unscrupulous merchants ignore the health of customers and illegally add western medicine purchased through informal channels to herbal tea, so that customers mistakenly think that their "special effects" herbal tea has therapeutic effects.
Recently, in the "Hurricane 2019" and the special campaign to crack down on illegal crimes in "villages in the city", Guangzhou Haizhu police, together with Haizhu District Food and Drug Administration and other departments, cracked a case of suspected production and sale of toxic and harmful food, and investigated and dealt with the production and sale of herbal tea shops and pharmacies containing illegally added drugs according to law; Eight suspects, including store operators Feng Mou, Chen Mou and Yang Mou, who were suspected of producing and selling toxic and harmful food, were arrested.
Reports from the masses: "Special effects" herbal tea bottle bottom shows drug particle residues.
In January this year, Haizhu police received a clue from the masses transferred by the District Food and Drug Administration: after buying a bottle of herbal tea at the "Guimou Herbal Tea" herbal tea shop in Xiqiao Street, Haizhu District, white and yellow particles were found at the bottom of the bottle, and it was suspected that drugs were added to the herbal tea, fearing that it would affect the health.
Haizhu police attached great importance to this and quickly joined the Food and Drug Administration to conduct on-site sampling inspection on the herbal tea shop of Guimou Herbal Tea. The inspection results show that the herbal tea sold in this herbal tea shop contains western medicines such as ibuprofen and salicylic acid, which does not meet the requirements of the national food safety law.
However, for the above test results, Feng, the operator of herbal tea shop, not only refused to admit the illegal addition of drugs, but also proposed administrative reconsideration.
Police carpet inspection: lock in the production and sales of "feeding" herbal tea shops and pharmacies
Food and drug safety is no small matter. In order to safeguard the vital interests of the residents, the Haizhu Police Food and Drug Environmental Crime Investigation Brigade quickly formulated an investigation plan, systematically conducted a comprehensive investigation on the herbal tea shops in the above-mentioned urban villages, such as "Guimou Herbal Tea", and collected fixed relevant evidence.
After several days of investigation, the police found some special actions of some herbal tea shop operators in the above areas in the process of flipping herbal tea: when the clerk handed the bottled herbal tea to the customer, if the customer asked him to buy a "special effect" herbal tea with quick effect and good curative effect, the clerk would take the bottle of herbal tea into the shop. About 1 minute later, the clerk will take out this bottle of herbal tea again and hand it to the customer, saying, "This is the special herbal tea, which will make you feel no pain after drinking it."
Tested by testing institutions, these "special effects" herbal teas all contain western medicine ingredients. During the investigation, the police successively found that five herbal tea shops and pharmacies, including Guimou Herbal Tea, illegally added drugs to herbal tea.
Joint law enforcement: the police jointly investigated and dealt with 5 illegal shops according to law.
After fully grasping the evidence of illegal drug addition in the herbal tea shops and pharmacies mentioned above, Haizhu police quickly joined the District Food and Drug Administration and the Market Supervision Bureau to carry out joint law enforcement on April 17, and invited the staff of Guangdong Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau to fight with the police to carry out joint law enforcement on five herbal tea shops and pharmacies located in Nanzhou, and seized a batch of drugs purchased through illegal channels on the spot, and arrested 8 operators and shopkeepers such as Feng, Yang and Huang.
After examination, Feng and other suspects truthfully explained the criminal facts of illegally adding drugs to herbal tea for sale.
1. In order to make herbal tea "special effect", illegal drugs are added at will.
Chen Mou, the suspect, confessed that the pharmacy he operated in the village in the city also sold herbal tea. When migrant workers living nearby have symptoms such as throat, gastrointestinal discomfort or cold and fever, they often go to their shops to buy herbal tea to relieve their discomfort. In order to increase income, Chen Mou added erythromycin and chlorpheniramine to its cough-relieving tea and cold tea, respectively, to make herbal tea effective and quick. Chen Mou also named its herbal tea "magic cough herbal tea" and "special cold tea". Although Chen Mou is qualified as a professional physician, the dosage of drugs added to herbal tea is very random, and he never weighs them, and sometimes even adds a variety of drugs. I am worried that some customers will drink too much "added" herbal tea and cause discomfort. Chen Mou is very cautious in selling, often only selling one bottle of herbal tea to customers at a time, and letting them buy it again if necessary.
2. a pot of ordinary herbal tea depends on adding "materials" to change the effect.
Another suspect in this case, Yang, confessed that after cooking herbal tea in the store every day, he would put the drugs that had been ground into powder in advance in a hidden place. Yang has only a primary school education, and he doesn’t know medical skills at all. In view of the different symptoms of customers, he just added different drugs to herbal tea, claiming that his herbal tea can treat different diseases. Every bottle of "added" herbal tea sold by the company can be sold to 8 yuan, and the profit rate is around 40% to 50%.
At present, criminal suspects such as Feng Mou and Chen Mou have been arrested according to law on suspicion of producing and selling toxic and harmful food, and the case is still under further review.
Police reminder: Article 150 of the Food Safety Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) stipulates that food refers to all kinds of finished products and raw materials for human consumption or drinking, as well as articles that are traditionally both food and Chinese herbal medicines, but does not include articles for the purpose of treatment. According to the relevant regulations, herbal tea belongs to food, and drugs may not be added to the food produced and operated.
There are strict restrictions on the use of drugs, and the dosage of drugs taken by different groups of people varies from person to person. If it is used too much or taken by mistake, it will have adverse effects on health. Therefore, it is necessary to treat the disease by drinking herbal tea objectively and rationally. When you are sick, you should still go to a regular hospital for medical treatment, and follow the doctor’s advice to supplement health food such as herbal tea for treatment.
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