One always expects absurdity from the authorities around Thingyan time.

Looks like they are anti satyr as well as anti satire https://tinyurl.com/newt462.

Happy Thingyan to everyone and Health in Myanmar will be back in a week.

Jamie

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Birth control pulled from shelves on police orders
Shwe Yee Saw Myint and Toe Wai Aung
Myanmar Times
Friday, 10 April 2015

A Police force “special project” to reduce sexual crime during Thingyan has resulted in registered contraceptive pills – and even condoms – being pulled from shelves, in a move health professionals say is highly misguided.

A pharmacy owner holds birth control pills yesterday that police have ordered him to take from the shelves in the lead-up to Thingyan. (Thiri Lu/The Myanmar Times)A pharmacy owner holds birth control pills yesterday that police have ordered him to take from the shelves in the lead-up to Thingyan. (Thiri Lu/The Myanmar Times)

Pharmacists have described it as the strongest crackdown on such products in at least a decade, but said trade was continuing unabated – only out of sight of the authorities, and at inflated prices.

Yangon police announced on March 30 that they would arrest owners of pharmacies or other shops found to be selling emergency contraceptives, birth control pills or medicines for erectile dysfunction.

Officers have been forcing pharmacy owners to sign pledges not to sell the medicines before and during the festival, including products registered with the Food and Drug Administration. In some areas of Yangon, pharmacies have even reported that police have told them to stop selling condoms.

Many have responded by pulling contraceptive products from their shelves, or even closing completely.

Police Lieutenant Thi Thi Myint said the campaign had been preceded by “educative talks”.

“On March 23 we started arresting shop owners who are selling the drug we have prohibited,” she said.

Dala township Police Lieutenant Colonel said he had been ordered to round up all of those selling erectile dysfunction medicine, whether on the street or in a shop.

He said that police officers had not been instructed to stop pharmacies from selling registered medicines, and that if they had done so it was a mistake.

But one pharmacy owner in downtown Yangon, who asked not to be named for fear of recriminations, told The Myanmar Times that police had told him he faced arrest if he sold any contraceptive products - including those registered with the FDA.

“I sold registered erectile dysfunction drugs and birth control pills before they started the Thingyan project. These products are completely legal and come from pharmaceutical companies,” he said.

“Now we are only selling them to people that we know, and we are hiding them under the desk,” he said, adding that sales volumes were similar to before but products were being sold for about twice the price.

He criticised the way police had gone about the “special project” and the lack of clarity in their orders.

“When police called us to a meeting about Thingyan festival they didn’t say which brands were banned and didn’t announce anything legally. It’s just verbal instructions.”

A spokesperson for the management committee of Mingalar Market, Yangon’s main wholesale market for pharmaceuticals, said all shops had signed a pledge to not sell contraceptive or erectile dysfunction medicines during the project period.

Dr Thiha Thit, the owner of a private medical clinic in Ahlone township, said the police project was misguided.

“Erectile dysfunction medicine does not encourage anyone to commit a sex crime,” he said. “Police should stop stores from selling date rape drugs instead.

“If police stop the sale of emergency birth control pills it will simply cause more social problems. I also think they should have set a clear policy and announced it properly.”

A spokesperson for Modern Choice Experts, a distributor of imported condoms, said the police crackdown created unwanted legal uncertainty for businesses.

“For companies who have invested the money and energy to complete this [registration] process and who play by the rules, I imagine it’s an unpleasant surprise to have sales suspended without an announcement or clear reasons stated,” the spokesperson said.

“In the absence of any official announcement it’s hard to work out the motivation for this, but we guess it is concerns about promiscuity and morals during Thingyan festival. There can be no medical or safety grounds, if the drugs suspended already have been approved and certified by the FDA.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Kean

http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/14036-birth-control-pulled-from-shelves-on-police-orders.html#.VScuHTUx5Kk.facebook