Thousands dead in Panama from taking cough syrup. Diethylene Glycol sold as Glycerin.

The agency tested one batch of glycerin from the factory, and found no glycerin, only diethylene glycol and two other substances, a drug official said.

Since then, the Chinese drug administration has concluded that it has no jurisdiction in the case because the factory is not certified to make medicine.

The agency reached a similar conclusion about Fortune Way, saying that as an exporter it was not engaged in the pharmaceutical business.

"We did not find any evidence that either of these companies had broken the law," said Yan Jiangying, a spokeswoman for the drug administration. "So a criminal investigation was never opened."

A drug official said the investigation was subsequently handed off to an agency that tests and certifies commercial products -- the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

But the agency acted surprised to learn that it was now in charge. "What investigation?" asked Wang Jian, director of its Taixing branch. "I'm not aware of any investigation involving a glycerin factory."

Besides, Huang Tong, an investigator in that office, said, "We rarely get involved in products that are sold for export."

"Besides, Huang Tong, an investigator in that office, said, "We rarely get involved in products that are sold for export."

But the good thing is, they're letting the free market take care of it!

Viva Laissez-Faire!

The fools.

They arrested the wrong man.





Now there's a lyric.

nity nite

"Free" market. Modern day snake oil salesmen, unregulated industry, no real government oversight, agencies, laws. America learned the hard way. China may - but the ramifications of a global market and dealing with unregulated, uninspected products has serious consequences. The death toll is staggering.

They arrested the wrong man.

They got one little guy, but they turn away from the institutionalized counterfeiting.

But Yuan Kailin, a former salesman for the factory , said he knew what the TD meant because a friend and former manager of the factory, Ding Yuming, had once told him. TD stood for the Chinese word "tidai" (pronounced tee-die), said Mr. Yuan, who left his job in 1998 and still lives about a mile from the factory.

In Chinese, tidai means substitute. A clue that might have revealed the poison, the counterfeit product, was hiding in plain sight.

It was in the product name.

I'm always charmed by the "get the government out of our lives" type. They proclaim that NO ONE would EVER jeopardize their valuable relationship with their clients by doing something underhanded, or dangerous.

Then there's the perfect dicotomy of China, seemingly the definition of "government in my life" running a wide open throttle capitalist society, NOT in the lives of anybody when it comes to regulation.

The "get the government out of my life" want a big thick slice of what China is serving up? Thankfully, they don't even have conscious thought enough to comprehend what they are saying.

This is rampant global capitolism gone mad.

Spud read a story today of cough syrup sent to SA from the PRC where over 300 people haff died taking it because of poisons in it.

There is no regulation, no control wotsoever in China. Its' corrupt and unclean and if the ultimate price of this madness is deaths around the world so be it say the globalists.

This is wot Spud calls...

"Paying the China Price"

Be Well.

This is what happens when Corporate Greed runs amock. This is the price we pay for being GREEDY pure and simple.

Larry