SELLING MEDICINES that have passed their expiry date has become a profitable business in the countryside. ThePaper.cn comments:

It is estimated that about 15,000 tons of medicines in China pass their expiry dates without being used. But there is not yet a system for collecting them for proper disposal. Some people throw them away as general garbage, which poses direct threat to the environment as most garbage ends up as landfill. But some expired medicines find their way into rural clinics and drugstores, where the supervision over medicines and farmers' awareness of the potential risks are weaker.

Some of the medicines are repackaged with newly printed fake labels, and some are directly sold to the rural users at lower prices, which appeals to rural consumers, who are more price-sensitive.

Because local residents do not consider it to be a problem, they do not complain to the authorities. Instead they appreciate the local chemists and practitioners providing them with affordable medicines near their homes.

In fact, the middlemen and the retailers make huge profits from the "cheap" medicines, which they buy at very low prices from urban residents, who would otherwise throw them away as waste.

In the field of food and drug safety, there is only one set of laws and regulations that should apply to all people nationwide, irrespective of whether they are urban or rural residents.

The authorities should increase the punishments for those selling expired medicines and raise the awareness of rural residents so they can protect their legal rights and interests, while lowering their medical expenses and making it more convenient for them to see a doctor.