Unlicensed Drugs and Drinks still common

Jakarta. The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency has made little headway in getting unregistered herbal medicines off the street, but it insists that it is not giving up the fight. 

Making the job more difficult is that people continue to ignore the risks of taking these unregistered medicines, which come in the form of drinks or pills. 

Kustantinah, head of the agency known as BPOM, said on Sunday that unlicensed herbal medicines sometimes carried a hidden risk many people may be unaware of because they were laced with chemical substances. 

“We will continue to remind people [of the dangers] and combat the use of illegal, 

untested herbal medicines in cooperation with local governments and police,” she said. 

The agency has also warned makers of traditional herbal medicines, or jamu , not to add chemicals to their concoctions. 

“It’s dangerous and we have indeed found some drugs like that circulating in Central and East Java. But I don’t remember the numbers or the brands,” she said. 

Many Indonesians take herbal medicines for all kinds of ailments, lured in part by the fact they are often cheaper than regular medicines. But while some herbal medicines are tested and found safe, others are not. Particularly the concoctions aimed at enhancing sexual prowess, BPOM says. 

Police last month arrested two men in Central Java suspected of producing and distributing jamu advertised as a sexual enhancement supplement that was found to contain dangerous chemical compounds, a police official said. The suspects could face up to five years in prison if found guilty. 

In February, police arrested three suspects in a similar case. The suspects were involved in producing illegal herbal medicine in Banyumas and Cilacap, both in Central Java. The business was worth billions of rupiah a month, police said. 

Homemade drugs and drinks have claimed numerous lives across the country over the last few years. 

Last August, at least 10 men died and six more were treated at Jakarta’s Fatmawati Hospital after drinking herbal medicine that was found to contain alcohol, among other ingredients. 

Last June, three people died in Kediri, East Java, after consuming herbal drinks that had been spiked with methanol. 

And in June 2009, 25 people died within one week in Bali and West Nusa Tenggara after drinking illegally produced rice wine that had been laced with methanol. The wine is believed to have originated in Bali. 

Among the victims were three foreign tourists.