Dad speaks out after teen ordered banned testosterone booster online
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An Ottawa father says he was shocked to learn his teenage son ordered banned pharmaceuticals off the Internet, and he’s warning others about websites he says are putting children at risk.
The man said he immediately became suspicious when the package arrived in the mail in early January.
The person said, “We saw that a package was arriving and my son indicated it was personal. When it arrived, it was customs-cleared … and it looked like it had liquid in it, and so it flagged.”
CBC is not naming the father because he fears the story will affect his son, who is in high school and struggling with body image issues. The father says that his son has been working out regularly in the gym and is looking for a way to get results faster.
“Social media is raising our kids’ expectations of what they should look like, how big they should be, how strong they should be, how fast they can get results,” she said.
The package delivered to the family’s Ottawa home contained enclomiphene citrate solution, a drug sometimes used as a testosterone booster but never approved for sale in Canada.
His son had ordered it online and had it delivered to his parents’ doorstep by paying with his parent’s credit card.
The man said he was proud of his son’s commitment to physical fitness.
“He plays sports and is very good at the sports he plays, and yet he wants to be even bigger and better and achieve those results faster,” the father said. “Online ads … offered a quick route to success and bigger muscles and better results in the gym, and I think he was trying to take a shortcut to it.”
The drugs were labeled “Research Material: Not for Human Consumption”, raising more questions.
“I was really upset, really disappointed,” the man said. “So given that they are not for human consumption and a child had ordered them and had cleared them through customs… we were very concerned.”
The man told CBC that the boy’s mother destroyed the drugs.
‘It was a blind spot’
Health Canada’s website warns that most online pharmacies are fraudulent, and purchasing medications from these sites can pose significant health risks.
In a statement, the Canada Border Services Agency told CBC it works with Health Canada to stop illegal shipments. Both departments declined to be interviewed for this story.
CBC contacted the company that sent the drugs, but is not disclosing the name of the website to prevent other youth from accessing it. The company did not respond to CBC’s requests for an interview.
The boy’s father said that when he contacted the company, it offered to refund his son’s money and blocked him from accessing the site in the future.
In its response, the company said that its website clearly states that its products are “solely for laboratory research purposes, and not for human consumption.” It also notes that at checkout, customers must declare that they are 18 years old and understand the terms and conditions of sale.
“The details under the account have been blacklisted, so no further purchases will be possible from the account,” the company wrote.
The child’s father wants other parents to also be aware of this danger.
“It was a blind spot for me,” he said. “I would have talked to them about what was going on in the gym, what the culture of the gym was, and … whether there were any type of drugs being used (there).”
