The Supreme Court refused to exclude poppy from the list of drugs – Kommersant

The appeal panel of the Supreme Court of Russia rejected the appeal of Alexander Startsev and recognized as legal the refusal to exclude confectionery poppy and its seeds from the list of narcotic drugs, reported the Russian Agency of Legal and Judicial Information press service court.

In May 2023, Alexander Startsev and his mother Elena Antipenskaya demanded that the Supreme Court change the lists of narcotic drugs approved by the Russian government on March 31, 2022. Alexander Startsev demanded that confectionery poppy and its seeds be excluded from the list, for the sale of which, according to the plaintiff’s lawyers, he was sent to a pre-trial detention center on suspicion of drug trafficking. In October Sun (.pdf) rejected the claim of Alexander Startsev, after which he filed an appeal against the decision of the higher authority.

As I told you Business FM the applicants’ lawyer Valery Shukhardin, businessman from Chita Alexander Startsev was engaged in the supply of products and spices from Novosibirsk, including confectionery poppy seeds, and Elena Antipenskaya ran a grocery store in Chita where they were sold. According to the publication, in 2022 they were charged with selling narcotic drugs as part of an organized group (Part 4 of Article 228.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Initially, the defendants in this case were kept in a pre-trial detention center. In May, Elena Antipenskaya was released on her own recognizance, while Alexander Startsev was left in custody. The publication, citing the case materials, reported that the accused sold edible poppy seeds in factory packaging of 50, 100 and 200 grams; the products were brought from Kazakhstan. According to the investigation, the poppy seeds contained morphine and codeine, Business FM reports.

As lawyer Valery Shukhardin, representing the interests of the applicants, explained to the court, the contested norms allow law enforcement agencies to abuse their powers and open criminal cases against sellers of legal poppy, while the legislation has long been in need of correcting such legal gaps.

In 2019, the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, Tatyana Moskalkova, proposed removing poppy from the list of drugs. According to the Ombudsman, due to its sale, many citizens who did not pose a public danger were injured, including the heads of enterprises that sold legal poppy.

Read more about Alexander Startsev’s claim in the Kommersant article. “Dulya with poppy seeds”.

Erdni Kagaltynov