SIX people were detained by Longhua New Area police for allegedly illegally selling cough syrup, which can be used as an addictive drug, to minors, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported Thursday.

    A young man, going by the alias of Jun, was diagnosed as having osteoporosis at a Shenzhen hospital in May. “I’ve been drinking cough syrup for five years. I had to drink two bottles a day after I became addicted to it,” Jun said.

    A 17-year-old student, identified as Qiang, has been drinking cough syrup for over a year, and each bottle costs him 200 yuan (US$29). “I feel perturbed if I don’t drink it,” he said. In July, after he couldn’t bear the suffering any more, Qiang reported to the police in Longhua that someone was selling cough syrup online.

    Police found that the sellers had been using QQ chat groups to solicit underage buyers, and they made transactions on a shopping website under the cover of selling facial masks.

    Longhua police detained three suspects in Suzhou, Jiangsu Pro-vince, on Aug. 16 and found 7,000 10-milliliter bags and 62 20-milliliter bottles of cough syrup in a warehouse near their apartment.

    Another suspect, surnamed Zhou, turned himself in to the police Sept. 15. Later police went to Hebei and Sichuan provinces and detained two other people who had sold cough syrup to Zhou and his three accomplices.

    A police investigation found Zhou and his accomplices used WeChat and QQ to contact potential buyers and mailed cough syrup to them.

    “Cough syrup endangers the physical and mental health of teenagers, so we have no tolerance for cough syrup traders,” said the spokesperson of Minxin Police Station in Longhua.

    (Zhang Yang)