The men were told it would save their marriage or help create the perfect first date. Instead many of them ended up drooling uncontrollably, suffering from life-threatening erections and facing a higher risk of heart attacks.
The manufacturing and consumption of unregulated drugs meant to enhance the male sex drive have been on the rise across Ivory Coast, a West African nation of 31 million. Customers include young men seeking to impress their partners with displays of unmatched virility. To do so, they take stimulants with side effects they know little about.
Although the authorities in Ivory Coast have banned the production of such drugs and are seizing them, they continue to flood the streets of West Africa. Popular products are being exported to neighboring countries and the West, and are available on Amazon and Walmart, where they are advertised as “100 percent natural,” though the ingredients are not listed on the bottle.
Products like Attoté, a manufactured beverage, and other so-called artisanal sex stimulants made in Ivory Coast contain high levels of sildenafil, the drug commonly known as Viagra, according to public health officials and laboratory tests obtained by The New York Times. The pills are manufactured in India, smuggled into Ivory Coast, crushed, mixed with other ingredients and sold for $1.50 domestically, $15 in France and $20 in the United States.
Up to half of the drugs in West Africa are unregulated, according to the United Nations’ drug agency. More than 500,000 people are estimated to die every year in sub-Saharan Africa from the consumption of dangerous, unregulated medications. Sexual stimulants like Attoté are among the most frequently reported, according to the World Health Organization.
“It’s coming in from everywhere,” Dr. Assane Coulibaly, the head of Ivory Coast’s pharmaceutical regulatory authority, said about the sexual stimulants. “It’s a war.”
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