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Dangerous Drug Giveaways Flood WhatsApp Groups
5 Feb
Summary
- Social media groups offer dangerous, unlicensed weight-loss drugs as prizes.
- Promoters use tactics like countdown timers and 'add friends' for entry.
- Experts warn this marketing of pharmaceuticals is extremely dangerous.
Hidden-market promoters are utilizing social media platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram to conduct "giveaway" competitions for powerful, unlicensed weight-loss drugs. These schemes offer substances such as retatrutide, which is not approved in the UK, as prizes. Experts have described these practices as "extremely dangerous," highlighting the application of digital marketing tactics to pharmaceuticals that lack proper licensing.
Competitions often feature urgency with "24-hour" entry windows and require participants to add friends or follow social media accounts. Drugs like retatrutide, Glow pens, and melanotan II are promoted, despite being experimental, unapproved, or having potential side effects. Under UK law, many of these substances are regulated medicines requiring a prescription and dispensing through licensed channels, or are entirely unapproved for public sale.
Some operators disguise these sales as legitimate businesses, such as fitness coaching, to bypass payment restrictions. This tactic allows them to market unlicensed drugs using coded language. The use of pressure tactics and the promotion of these powerful, injectable drugs as prizes instead of healthcare interventions raise significant safety concerns and discourage proper scrutiny.
