According to the Notice, non-pharmaceutical precursor chemicals currently occupy over 80% of all the precursor chemicals under domestic control in both variety and volume. In order to prevent the illegal purchase and use of non-drug precursor chemicals in the production of narcotic drugs, several important legislations regarding the safety control of (non-drug) precursor chemicals have been formulated in the past decade.

In 2005, the “Regulations for Administration of Precursors and Chemicals used in Production of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances” (so-called State Council Decree 445) was first adopted in August at the 102nd session of Standing Committee Meeting of the State Council and soon came into effect as of 1 December 2005. This regulation demands that SAWS have the responsibility in administrating and supervising the production/operation permits issued to non-drug precursor chemical companies. It is also in this law that a system of categorized management has been identified for the production, operation, purchase, transportation and import/export of ingredients of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

Following the implementation of Decree 445, two new rules concerning respectively the management of non-drug precursors and drug precursors were consecutively enacted in 2006 and 2010. They were formulated and governed by different departments. For the control of the non-drug type, the SAWS first put into effect the “Measures for the licensing for production and operation of non-pharmaceutical precursor chemicals” (SAWS odrer 5-2006) in April 2006; as to the drug type, the Measures for the administration of drug precursors (used in production of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances) （MOH order 72-2010）was lately enacted by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and now in force as of May 2010. There are however some procedural overlaps in the preparation and submission part of application materials for each different production/operation license, though both legislations have clarified the scope of law with a specific inventory of the subject chemical types. The SAWS rule lists three categories and 19 main types of non-drug precursor chemicals; and the MOH one focuses on lysergic acid, ergotamine, ergonovine, ephedrine and other similar types.

The catalog and classification of the total 23 precursor chemicals, included in State Council Decree 445, can now be searched on REACH24H developed China Chemical Inventory Toolbox.