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Dmitry Lopatin, a 26-year-old scientist who invented a cheap new kind of solar battery, has come across an unexpected obstacle. He was slapped with a three-year suspended jail sentence, for using banned materials in his invention. The researcher was facing 11 years behind bars, but the prosecutor's office dealing with the case agreed that a suspended sentence would suffice, the TASS news agency reported.
From rt.com:
Lopatin got in trouble with the authorities for using a solvent called gamma-Butyrolactone in order to make his solar batteries. It turned out this was a banned substance in Russia. He had placed a mail order for the solvent from China, and he was arrested when he went to collect it from the post office in June.
The researcher had tried to use a different substance, but found that it was too toxic to work with.
"In my work I was using a solvent which is toxic and can cause cancer. That is why I tried to find a substitute. I found one via the Internet and ordered it," he told RT.
"A month and a half later the parcel reached customs and I was called in and detained. Police launched a criminal case against me and I was interrogated. There were several court hearings. I chose to order from China because of the strict laws there. I had no idea that in China I could order a solvent which is banned in Russia."
Given that he is a researcher, is the use of the banned substance reasonable?
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tftp on Monday July 20 2015, @06:55AM
Then again, when is the last time you checked the controlled substances act before buying a common industrial solvent online?
I had to check some laws [fedex.com] when buying Lithium batteries from Digi-Key. It's legal to buy, but not legal to put them on the airplane - on some conditions, like the amount of Lithium. Digi-Key checks for that for me - but if I am not careful I may add a battery to a large, urgent order and have it downgraded from an overnight to a FedEx Ground, which takes a week or more. And I can't do anything about it once the package ships. That might wreck my production plans.
In this case researchers should be able to get whatever reagents they need from wherever - but if a neuroscientist legitimately needs LSD or heroin for his research on animals, perhaps it is ill-advised to buy those chemicals in a ghetto, or from the Silk Road, or mail-order them from a Mexican cartel and take delivery in an abandoned warehouse. He should order it through his research facility. If he is a garage scientist... it's too bad, so sad; there is no way to know what he is getting them for. A private researcher in the USA does not automatically gain access to drugs and explosives just because he says that he is a researcher. He'd be telling that to his arresting officer, and then to the prosecutor.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2015, @08:50AM
"We found heroin under your seat. What do you have to say to it?"
"Well, I'm a private researcher, and I need that stuff for my research."
"Really? What is that research about?"
"About how those drugs act on the human mind."
"So you planned to intoxicate people with this?"
"Oh no, I'm an ethical researcher. I'm only doing self experiments."
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday July 20 2015, @01:16PM
A private researcher in the USA does not automatically gain access to drugs and explosives just because he says that he is a researcher.
True, but that's for something that is primarily a drug or an explosive (nitroglycerin might even be considered both)
This is about something that is primarily considered a solvent that various crazy drug laws now treat as a drug because it became somewhat popular to get high from it, unlike toluene which is still treated as just a solvent even though some choose to get high on it.
He didn't buy it on the Silk Road or in a back ally, he bought it from a perfectly prosaic industrial chemical supplier. The fact that he didn't make any attempt to obscure what it was, who he was, or where he was tells us his state of mind.
Sort of like you must be 21 to buy ethanol for consumption unless it's a flavor extract. This is a bit like a minor being surprised to be busted for buying a bottle of lemon extract at the grocery store.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Monday July 20 2015, @03:57PM
Unfortunately the entire purpose of laws is to classify human behavior into thousands of categories - and some of those categories represent illegal activities. In the USA a felon may not buy a gun (unless he jumps through extra hoops) not because he is dangerous, but because he had been classified as dangerous. An F-1 car driver may not drive on a common freeway faster than posted speed even if he is perfectly capable of handling the car. The only adjustable point in this system is the court and the judge - and in this case that adjustment worked, to some extent. In other countries some laws come with mandatory sentences - and then not much the judge can do about it; or the jury - short of nullification, which is anathema.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday July 20 2015, @05:08PM
Which is why he gets a suspended sentence.
Said suspended sentence is too long for my taste (you get less than that in many places for robbery or grand theft), but it's a warning to be mindful that the law applies to "researchers" who import random banned stuff from abroad.