Sex stimulants being openly sold in Kabul

KABUL and could even lead to death, doctors say, but such phrodisiacs are being sold openly by Kabul-based pharmacies and peddlers.

A variety of the sex stimulants, manufactured in Arab countries, Europe, Pakistan and India, can be found in the form of tablet, spray, chewing gum, cream and capsules. Pharmacists sell them to the young and old alike, without doctors’ prescription.

A druggist in the Pul-i-Kheshi locality said on condition of anonymity that the sex drugs had a huge profit margin. Their wholesale prices are low, but the retail rates are pretty high.

Both young and old people buy these drugs without asking for any concession, he said, adding a four-tablet strip was priced between 20 and 80afs. Because of its efficacy, a sex spray — or cream for that matter — accounts for 350 afs.

Occasionally consuming the drugs to last longer, a buyer told Pajhwok Afghan News: “Although I’m healthy, I have to use the medicine just for the heck of it.” He has so far experienced no side-effects of the drugs.

Another user from the Taimany locality said: “I bought two tablets from a drug store and used them to enhance my sex drive. But before going to bed, I felt like vomiting.”

Subsequently, the 40-year-old visited a physician who warned him against using such drugs in the future. The man said the use of sex drugs amounted to inviting trouble.

A drugstore owner, who did not want to be named, said effective sex enhancement drugs were manufactured by India. One Indian Vega tablet sells for 20 afs, but similar drug manufactured by a European or Arab country costs up to 6,000afs.

The Indara Gandhi Children’s Hospital head, Mohammad Bashir Quraishi, called such medicine a health hazard. Their log-term use could be fatal, the doctor cautioned, explaining that many users did not need sex drugs at all.

Over a period of time, users of prays and cream lost their erectile power, he said. “Before taking these drugs, you must consult a doctor. Their use by high blood pressure patients could rupture heart veins.”

Kabul police crime branch chief, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Zahir, said they were not responsible for collecting under-the-counter drugs. However, they had confiscated several times such drugs and handed them over to the Ministry of Public Health.

A spokesman for the ministry, Dr. Ghulam Sakhi Kargar Awghli, said they had seized and torched a large quantity of expired, spurious and sex drugs last year.

myn/mud