The Cosmetics Devices and Drugs Control Authority said there was a high tendency of school children getting addicted to sexual enhancement drugs to merely get a kick out of such drugs, which has become a serious issue.

“We have received information that the use of sexual enhancement drugs among school children have increased in the recent past. This medicine should be used only under a prescription as it has more side effects. We have information about the amount of this medicine used in Sri Lanka. We know the amount imported by the government as well. We have learnt that these medicines are smuggled into the country through the customs. Having considered all these facts, we can say that there is an increase in the use of these drugs in the country. This is not a good trend”,  the Authority’s Director Dr. Hemantha Beneragama said.

When asked if the banning of these drugs would help prevent this situation, he said banning alone would not help curb it.

“We have banned some drugs while the import of some other drugs has been limited in the country. We must educate people including parents to reduce the use of these drugs among the school children. We have instructed our provincial directors and district directors in this regard. Apart from that we are conducting island wide workshops to educate pharmacists and pharmacy owners about the ethics related to the sale of drugs”, he said.

Dr. Beneragama said they had taken three steps to address this issue. The first step was to educate parents; the second was to educate pharmacists and pharmacy owners and the third was to implement the law against the perpetrators.

Dr. Beneragama said some unscrupulous agents had lured the school children, who were more vulnerable, to these drugs.

“The school children are easy to be lured into these habits. Out of more than 5000 brands of medicinal drugs available in the market today only 400 generic varieties were included in the essential medicine list. We admit that there are more brands in the market,” he said. (Ajith Siriwardana and Indika Sri Aravinda)

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