diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index a6b5179b7..7a8495aa9 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ if not OS == "win":
 	EXTRA_COMPILE_ARGS = ["-Wno-missing-braces", "-DHAVE_INCLUDE_LIBTORRENT_ASIO____ASIO_HPP=1", 
 				"-DHAVE_INCLUDE_LIBTORRENT_ASIO_SSL_STREAM_HPP=1", 
 				"-DHAVE_INCLUDE_LIBTORRENT_ASIO_IP_TCP_HPP=1", 
-				"-DHAVE_PTHREAD=1", "-DTORRENT_USE_OPENSSL=1", "-DHAVE_SSL=1"]
+				"-DHAVE_PTHREAD=1", "-DTORRENT_USE_OPENSSL=1", "-DHAVE_SSL=1", "-DNDEBUG"]
 	if ARCH == "x64":
 		EXTRA_COMPILE_ARGS.append("-DAMD64")