Shun Performance-Enhancing Drugs – NAFDAC Warns Nigerian Men

• Seizes over N3bn illegal drugs, unwholesome food products at the Lagos Trade Fair Complex

BY CHINYERE OBIORA – Disturbed by the rising cases of reported deaths over the use of performance-enhancing substances in the country, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, (NAFDAC) has warned Nigerian men to shun using such drugs aimed at impressing their female partners.

According to the Director-General of NAFDAC, Professor Moji Adeyeye;  “Many men have died using such drugs and their relatives would blame their death on some imaginary witches in the village.”

This is as the Agency disclosed that it seized over N3 billion worth of falsified and banned drugs and unwholesome food products recently at the Lagos Trade Fair Complex.

In a Christmas and New Year goodwill message to Nigerians, Prof. Adeyeye lamented the nationwide preponderance of performance-enhancing drugs, also known as ‘aphrodisiac’ or ‘Manpower’ in the local parlance.

The statement released by the agency’s resident media consultant, Mr Olusayo Akintola quoted Prof Adeyeye as saying that most of the performance-enhancing drugs are not registered with NAFDAC and many of them were being smuggled into the country.

She stated that “If they were registered, the producers and peddlers would not get it to the supermarkets, social media platforms, and on the streets. The majority of these products did not go through the approval process of the agency, the agency will not relent in running after the peddlers of such dangerous drugs until they are brought to book for violating the regulations.”

The NAFDAC boss, who noted that some of the producers falsely claim that they have no side effects, said the danger has become prevalent because most human beings have the need for intimacy and healthy sexual life which determines their overall wellbeing.

Maintaining that “If there are physical or psychological problems to a person’s sexuality, it can hamper their self-confidence”, Prof Adeyeye expressed sadness that “many people today have been caught in the web of such circumstances, leading them to seek a way out of the wood, and that in recent times, the use of aphrodisiacs has become the range.”

For her, NAFDAC is worried that many people are ignorant of the possible damage the misuse of aphrodisiacs or the use of unregistered drugs could cause, adding that there are manufacturing quality guidelines and mandated regulations that control the production.

She further warned that the unbridled use of aphrodisiacs has a lot of implications in the entire body system and that the use of the products could potentially affect the blood pressure of the body.

Prof Adeyeye said; “When you have a disproportionate flow of blood to a particular part of the body and lasting longer than normal, they tend to disrupt the normal flow of the circulatory system”, even as she noted that aphrodisiacs could also interact with other drugs in the system and cause problem for the liver which is responsible for the breakdown of drugs while the byproduct of all waste goes down through the kidneys.

The Director-General said when these so-called enhancers are used, especially with some herbal medicines that do not have dosage and professional prescription, it could lead to internal organ damage, as well as hurt the liver and the kidneys and this could cause untimely death.

She said with the way the body system works, everything is expected to function the way God designed it, warning that; “when we begin to disrupt the functions of the body organs overtime it affects the imbalance and the ecosystem of how the body physiology works and can lead to unintended consequences.

‘’For those who have certain health risks, like people that are hypertensive or people that have heart disease, there is more of anxiety that the drug could stimulate into the system and can lead to changes in the physiology of the body, stroke or sudden stoppage of the heart.

“These happen in cases when men suddenly slump during sexual intercourse as reported in Rivers and Cross River States recently. There are a lot of side effects. Every drug is a potential poison. Every drug has one side effect or the other.

“These are chemical products with side effects. In some cases, there are associated Adverse Drug Reactions that could lead to death. It is not all cases of sudden death that are caused by witches and wizards in the village, but in most cases, they are caused by what we eat or drink carelessly.”

The NAFDAC Chief Executive charged Nigerians to eat right and drink right, especially in this festive season, to avoid health complications after the annual events, just as she disclosed that no fewer than 20 trailer loads of such banned and unwholesome products were carted away by officers of the agency’s Investigation and enforcement directorate, led by Barrister Kingsley Ejiofor.

Noting some of the drugs impounded at the trade fair complex were performance-enhancing drugs and that most of them are counterfeit, Prof Adeyeye regretted that most manufacturers do not care about quality as they now “add what they are not supposed to add or add more than what they are supposed to add, and in the end, the user is the loser.”

Prof Adeyeye, who berated those seeking to make quick money and profits at the expense of the health and lives of undiscerning consumers, pledged that NAFDAC would not relent in ensuring minimized falsification of drugs to give confidence to consumers.

Also, she disclosed that NAFDAC has ordered 40 units of a detecting device, TRU SCAN, worth US$70,000 each for use on the field to spot fake medicines, explaining that the device will indicate whether a drug is 5mg or 50mg.

Describing the device as both qualitative and quantitative, she said NAFDAC is the first agency in the world to use the Tru Scan which does quantitative spot checks on the chemical content of medicines and chemical levels of the drug.

“This is part of the multifaceted approach the Agency is adopting in fighting the preponderance of banned and falsified drugs in the country”, she said.