The National Tax Service detected in January-July this year 18 cases of smuggled impotence medicine worth 90.6 billion won ($77 million) in total, according to the data it submitted to Rep. Lee Ae-joo of the ruling Grand National Party.
The amount is a 23-fold jump from the 3.8 billion won back in 2005 and is expected to rise further by the end of the year.
The amount of counterfeit medical substances smuggled to the local market in January-July reached 90.8 billion won, among which over 99 percent was impotence cures such as Viagra and Levitra, according to officials.
The majority of the detected fake medicine was manufactured in China.
The imitation impotence pills either included an illegal overdose of active ingredients or toxic substances such as mercury or lead.
“The NTS detects the smuggled medicine by randomly inspecting some 10 percent of the imported cargo,” said Rep. Lee, a member of the parliamentary health, welfare and family affairs committee.
“The actual amount of illicitly circulated medicine is expected to be much higher.”
Recently, importance cures have been circulated in bulk in local black markets, according to the police.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s international crime department arrested an ethnic Korean man from China for smuggling and circulating fake Viagra and Cialis, said officials Tuesday.
The smuggler packed 270,000 pills, worth 4.2 billion won in total, in a cargo container and sent them to Korea through the international delivery service.
The fake pills were not only ineffective in curing men’s sexual impotence but often caused medical side effects.
Customers were easily fooled by the smuggled pills as they displayed the exact same visual packaging as the original.
Under the present law, impotence cure pills may only be purchased in pharmacies with a medical doctor’s prescription, but the potential takers are easily attracted to the black market out of shyness to discuss the issue openly, said officials.
Not that I'm arguing for or against this type of medication, but as long as there are pills to cure "personal" problems, there will be those trying to obtain them in the most anonymous way possible. I'm amazed at the numbers here.
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