Legal Substance in the Supervision of Traditional Medicines Containing Medicinal Chemicals as an Effort to Protect Consumers in Indonesia

Abstract

Traditional medicine is a product made from natural ingredients with very diverse types and properties, so to ensure the quality of traditional medicine, an exemplary manufacturing method is needed. The Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (as BPOM for short) still finds a number of traditional medicinal products where medicinal chemicals are mixed (abbreviated as BKO). Thus, the widespread circulation of traditional medicines without permission to distribute has become urgent today to protect consumers of conventional medicines. This study analyzes how the legal substance and form of supervision of traditional medicines containing medicinal chemicals is a form of consumer protection in Indonesia. This is legal research that uses qualitative methods with analytical descriptive data analysis techniques. This article concludes that the substance of the legislation that regulates supervision and sanctions related to the circulation of traditional medicines containing medicinal chemicals or which do not meet the requirements is sufficient. However, there need to be more explicit implementation rules regarding technical implementation, including rules for dividing tasks and authority between related parties. The supervision of traditional medicines containing medicinal chemicals has not been adequate. This is caused by various obstacles, one of which is the low level of public knowledge about traditional medicines containing medicinal chemicals or those that do not meet the requirements and the low active role of the community in the implementation of supervision.