Daniel Taku, the man who was arrested last Thursday by the Takoradi Police in collaboration with the Takoradi Zonal Office of the Food and Drugs Board (FOB) for selling fake drugs, Borges Olive Oil, and two others has been remanded in police custody to re-appear before the court on Tuesday, August 23, 2011. Upon interrogation, Daniel Taku admitted being involved in the sale of the counterfeit products with his supplies coming from Accra. He stated that the unregistered Toppey products, however, belonged to his brother (Mr. Stephen Oppey) whom he said stayed in the same apartment with him. The three suspects are Mr. Daniel Taku, Mr. Stephen Oppey, and the supplier of the counterfeit Borges Olive oil. The capsules were suspected to contain sand and saw dust mixed together and packaged for public consumption. The Toppey Kooko capsule was indicated for the treatment of piles and waist pains while, Toppey Gona Capsules, was for the treatment of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD’s). With the increase of fake herbal products on the market despite FOB health alerts in the media, the New Crusading Guide Newspaper interviewed the Head of Communications of FOB, James Lartey, who stated that these charlatans make the work of the genuine herbalists difficult because the public could eventually lose trust and confidence in genuine herbal products. Mr Lartey, in acknowledging medical values in plant, stated that there were lots of charlatan herbalists in the country who for want of money would produce anything and will mislead the public to believe that they are herbal products. He lamented that people who have consumed these unwholesome herbal products would end up having medical complications like kidney and liver problems. He cautioned the public to be careful when purchasing herbal medicines especially, if the products have not been registered by the food and Drugs Board. The Head of Communications pointed out that the capsules had no contents on the label but rather, the location address as Dansoman, Accra and a telephone number of Takoradi which according to him, clearly indicated that they could not be used to treat any disease and therefore, advised the public not to patronise them. Mr Lartey emphasised that the consumption of these products would rather lead to stomach ulcer and other diseases in the gastrointestinal tract. He cited Nicholas Antwi, who mixed Gentamycin, Streptomycin and Sulphathiazole for the treatment of HIV/AIDS as well as Onyame Nti Herbal, who was also mixing eight complex Diazepam and Dexamethasone as herbal concoction and a lot more whose herbal products were contaminated with yeast and moulds. “It is worrying that one would spend huge sums of money seeking cure for some ailments, but end up compounding the ailment by taking dangerous and medicines whose quality, safety and efficacy cannot be guaranteed,” he stated.