Doctors at Norway’s national prison are under scrutiny for prescribing Viagra pills to inmates serving time for sexual crimes, officials said on Tuesday.

The chief county medical officer of health confirmed that Viagra had been prescribed to at least two sex-crime inmates but defended the use of the anti-impotence pills.
More about those wacky Norwegians here.

OSLO (Reuters) – “An inmate is a normal individual who from time to time — when on leave — wants to have functional sexual relations with his girlfriend or spouse,” Anders Smith said.

“If they have a problem, they have the same rights as anyone else to get help,” he told Reuters.

The governor of Ila national prison near Oslo said he wanted more information about the use of Viagra after a 42-year-old inmate, serving time for incest, was prescribed the pill and later sexually abused his 16-year-old son in the prison’s visiting area.

“We need a clarification of the situation. We need to know what’s going on,” governor Knut Bjarkeid told Reuters. Under current rules, the medical records of the inmates are confidential — even to prison officials.

Bjarkeid said he had sent a letter to the medical authorities that oversees the health services of the prison’s 115 inmates, asking for an investigation.