Sex drugs at shops are not authorized

Burak Coşan ISTANBUL / Radikal

This file photo shows a pile of drugs, mainly fake ones, which were confiscated by Istanbul police. Selling sexual potence drugs at groceries is forbidden in Turkey. DHA photo

A variety of drugs claiming to enhance sexual potency and labeled “Produced under the authorization of S.B.” are sold at gas stations and even neighborhood groceries across Turkey, but this “S.B.” has nothing to do with the Health Ministry (Sağlık Bankalığı), officials warn. The Agriculture Ministry, another regulator in the field, is also not aware of the issue, Radikal has learned.

Oddak is just one of a number of companies active in the market, which hit 400 million liras last year. The company, based in the southern province of Mersin, markets its Biox brand of sexual-enhancement drugs via telephone. An executive on the other end of the phone line claimed that the company holds all of the necessary licenses, but Health Ministry officials said this was not true.

No license would permit the sale of such drugs at grocery stores, the officials said. Agriculture Ministry officials also said they would not approve such a permit. “In case of any health problem, people should use drugs prescribed by doctors. Products [like the over-the-counter sexual enhancers] cannot get approval from the Health Ministry or the Agriculture Ministry,” officials said.

Shop owners have also raised complaints about such drugs. Oddak sells its products on a sell-or-return basis, claiming it will collect the money after the products have sold. However, a grocery store in Istanbul told Radikal that the company demanded its money two months later, claiming it would initiate legal action if the payment was not received within one week. “I started selling this product two months ago. Then I started to receive complaints in one week,” the shop owner said.

Another grocery store owner in Istanbul said that after refusing to sell the company’s products he even received a phone call from someone claiming to be from the Health Ministry, who insisted that the goods were authorized.