How China’s opioid addicts get their drugs from an online black market

Beijing has some of the world’s tightest narcotics regulations, but sellers are using legitimate e-commerce channels to meet demand

Online vendors of drugs use partial names, slang, and photos of socks, plants and ceiling lamps to disguise their goods

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Abusers of medical drugs in China are getting access to supplies from vendors who use e-commerce sites. Photo: AP

Published: 9:40pm, 31 Dec 2019Updated: 1:05pm, 15 Feb 2020

China has some of the world’s strictest opioid regulations, but OxyContin and other pain pills are sold illegally online by vendors who take advantage of the country’s major e-commerce and social media sites, including platforms run by Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba.

These black markets supply, among others, opioid users in China who became addicted in the way many Americans did, by a doctor’s prescription. Beijing said that the extent of painkiller abuse within China was poorly understood, making it hard to assess risks as pain care improved and China’s consumption of opioids increased.

According to the latest public figures, 11,132 cases of medical drug abuse were reported in China in 2016. Reporting is voluntary and figures were drawn from a small sample of institutions including law enforcement agencies, drug rehabilitation centres and some hospitals.

The government food and drugs regulator said in the 2016 report that it was trying to do better but, for the time being, “the nature of medical drug abuse in the population cannot be confirmed”.

Wu Yi, a 32-year-old singer, survived cancer only to find he could not stop taking OxyContin. He said his doctor told him OxyContin was not addictive and that he could take as much as he needed. As Wu was never identified as having a substance abuse problem, he was unlikely to have appeared in the government’s tally.

As his need increased, Wu began chewing OxyContin to intensify its effects and took vast quantities of alcohol and sleeping pills.