The Irish Medicines Board has warned that people are putting their lives in danger by taking illegal and fake medicines after it emerged there had been a 60% rise in seizures of sedatives last year.
In all, more than 750,000 doses, including weight loss and erectile dysfunction medication, were intercepted by authorities during 2012. While the total number of doses was slightly down on 2011, from 762,641 to 758,276, there was a massive increase in the number of sedatives, such as diazepam, which were intercepted, up from 153,483 to 246,951 units.
Other fake medicines seized included 52,089 doses of erectile dysfunction medication and 153,042 for weight loss. The bulk of the medicines were imported from China or India.
“The IMB strongly recommends that members of the public never purchase prescription medicines online as there are no guarantees as to the safety, quality or effectiveness of these products,” said chief executive Pat O’Mahony, as the IMB published its report.
“Medicines purchased on the internet can pose serious health risks to those who use them. The supply of prescription-only medicines via the internet is illegal and no online pharmacy is authorised to operate in or into Ireland.”
Mr O’Mahony said IMB was concerned at the “consistent” levels of drugs being detained each year. While this report is for 2012, it emerged that, in one week in June this year, a joint Garda, Customs and Interpol operation seized more than 192,000 fake medications at Irish borders with an estimated overall price of €612,000.
Source: Stephen Rogers, Irish Examiner, 17/09/2013
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