The “illegal trade” of slimming pills among young women has become very popular.

Buying and selling prescription drugs on social networking sites, etc.

Manjaro needs to be refrigerated, and you have to inject it yourself. I think not many kids do it because they are afraid of needles. Nowadays, the drink is more popular.”

Ms. A (18), one of the so-called “Toyoko Kids” (boys and girls living in Kabukicho, Tokyo), said this without seeming to take offense.

GLP-1 receptor agonist, a drug for weight loss that has become very popular among young women in recent years, was developed as a treatment for type 2 diabetes, but because of its appetite-suppressing effect, it is also widely prescribed to patients who wish to lose weight for cosmetic purposes.

The most common examples are “Manjaro,” a subcutaneous injection, and “Reversus,” an oral medication, but in Japan they are prescription drugs and must be prescribed after consultation with a physician. However, “Toyoko Kids” and others are purchasing these drugs freely without a doctor’s examination.

The aforementioned Ms. A continues.

There is a person in the Tohyoko neighborhood who uses a Chinese app to arrange sleeping pills and STDs, and about a year ago he was giving away Liberthus as a trial. When I took it, I really didn’t get hungry anymore, and the number of users increased at once, saying, ‘You can definitely lose weight.

But buying from him is expensive, so now I buy from a “vendor” through “X” and “TikTok”. The price is 7,000 yen for 30 3mg tablets plus shipping. I pay with PayPay and they send them to me by registered post office so I can receive them even if I don’t have an address.”

The slimming pills that spread among tohyoko kids sometimes cause serious health problems.

One pill a day is not very effective, so kids who want to lose weight quickly take two or more pills. Also, after using the medicine for a long time, they become accustomed to it and develop a normal appetite.

If this happens, they have no choice but to increase the dosage of the pills, but if the monthly dosage exceeds 10,000 yen, it is a lot of money, so some of the children do “selling” (prostitution) to earn money for the pills. Some girls will sell to earn money for drugs. Some of them are even asking me, ‘I’ll give you two months’ worth of Liberthus to go to a hotel.

Rampant black market trade utilizing online medical treatment

Illegal trade of slimming pills is rampant in Kabukicho. A woman in her 30s, Ms. B, confided, “If you want to get a prescription for Manjaro at a general beauty clinic, you have to go to a doctor every time.

I was hesitant to go to a general beauty clinic to get a prescription for Manjaro because I had to see the doctor every time and the cost was close to 30,000 yen per month.

Then a Chinese friend introduced me to a purveyor pharmacy. They do something like a medical examination remotely, but they just ask you about your weight, height, medications you take regularly, and your medical history, etc. It only took about three minutes.”

Mr. B weighed 47 kg at the time, and considering his height of 160 cm, it would seem that he was underweight and did not need a slimming drug, but “they prescribed it to me without difficulty,” he says.

Four 5g x 4 bottles of Manjaro, enough for one month, cost 18,000 yen. Compared to the regular method, the price is almost 10,000 yen less, and from the second month, I can buy the medicine without a medical examination, which is very nice.

All the customers except me were probably Chinese, and some of them were clearly buying quantities beyond the scope of personal use. I think they are reselling them. Come to think of it, the Japanese spoken by the doctor in charge of online medical care was suspect, with an accent that sounded like Japanese spoken by a Chinese person.”

Looking at the Chinese social networking site Xiaohongshu (RED), one can see posts reporting the purchase of GLP-1 receptor agonists in Japan, such as “It was easy to buy with Chinese support” and “I was able to buy duty free. Some of the posts uploaded photos of large quantities of Manjaro packed in boxes and claimed that “direct shipment is available.

Manjaro is also distributed in China, but unlike the Japanese product, which is pre-installed with an ultra-fine needle, the most common type of Manjaro is one in which the needle is replaced by the user. Because of its ease of use and trust in quality control, the Japanese-made Manjaro is popular.

So, there is a rampant business of opening or acquiring pharmacies in Japan to purchase Manjaro and distribute it to China. It is believed that some of these pharmacies are selling various GLP-1 receptor agonists, mainly to their compatriots in Japan, with token or no medical examinations,” said a reporter from a medical trade magazine.

Of course, all of these acts are illegal. Attorney Hirotaro Kato of Kato & Todoroki Law Office explains.

GLP-1 receptor agonists, which are prescription drugs, must be sold by pharmacists upon issuance of a prescription by a physician, and failure to do so is a violation of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law and may result in imprisonment for up to three years or a fine of up to 3 million yen.

Illegal pharmacies must be cleaned up.