The New Straits Times reported that plans are afoot to amend the Sales of Drug Act 1952 which could see offenders being slapped with harsher penalties for putting public health at risk.

“The amendment will see the penalty amount increased from the current maximum of RM25,000 to RM100,000.

“The law will also provide a minimum penalty of no less than RM5,000. This is to ensure that the act serves its intended purpose of being a deterrent,” a PSD spokesman told the NST.

This came about after the NST’s Special Probes Team brought to the authorities’ attention the growing number of beauty parlours offering illicit services, including invasive ones.

In the exposé published in the New Sunday Times over the weekend, it was reported that scores of beauty parlours, hiding behind operating licences, were offering health products and services that were not only illegal, but put the lives of the public at risk.

It was reported that these beauty parlours offered injectable products sourced from, among others, Thailand, China and the local “backyard” cosmetics manufacturers.

The NST Special Probes Team also spoke to celebrities whose images were portrayed as “endorsing” such therapy used by unscrupulous beauty parlours to lure the public.

NST reported that the operators thumb their noses at the authorities by brazenly marketing themselves on social media, and showing clips of celebrities supposedly endorsing their products.

The authorities were now working round the clock to prevent harmful substances from flooding the local beauty industry as they embarked on a full scale operation to nab the errant operators.

It was also reported that the Health Ministry’s Medical Device Authority (MDA) and the Medical Practices Division (MPD) would also be joining the operation as they, too, wanted to go after beauty parlours using unregistered medical devices and doctors who were complicit.