Free New York City Condoms End Up For Sale in Dominican Republic Drug Stores

In 2007 the New York City Health Department was the first to release an official branded condom. The NYC Condom was distributed throughout the five boroughs for free in order to prevent sexually transmitted infections.

Now, Health Department officials have caught businesses shipping the free condoms out of the country to be sold at lower prices than other condom brands. They were found at Las Galeras Pharmacy in the Dominican Republic at a price of 20 pesos (50 cents).

The tax-funded New York condoms were, according to an NYC Department of Health news release, distributed at a rate of 18 million per year back in 2007. That number has increased to 38 million because since then the condoms have been available in bulk and a new marketing campaign and internet-based ordering system were installed for the program.

The NYC Health Department has kept quiet on this subject. The city enrolls businesses such as restaurants, bars, hospitals, health clinics, etc. to distribute the free condoms. The report found that health officials caught at least five businesses shipping the free condoms out of the country for resale. However, both the pharmacist in the Dominican Republic and the NYC Health Department spokeswoman refused to mention the businesses responsible.

"We buy them from a provider here in the Republic," pharmacist Francisco Pallano of Las Galeras Pharmacy, in this Fox News Latino article. "They distribute them to any pharmacy that wants them."

"We estimate that the lost condoms are a very small percentage of overall distribution," said the NYC Health Department spokeswoman in this New York Daily News article.

The free condom program began as a strategy to protect high-risk populations from being exposed to sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV and AIDS, and also less serious infections such as herpes, gonorrhea, chlamydia, etc. So although they're being illegally redistributed to the Dominican, it can help promote protection for poorer populations in the country.

But now that this story is widespread, the NYC Health Department is likely to crack down on the business that they distribute the condoms to and the Dominicans will eventually have to purchase the more expensive Durex condoms.