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Viagra's Wild Side
The impotence drug is all the rage in nightclubs,
and that has many people worried.
From the club scene to the gay scene, there's
a new kind of drug scene. It's embodied in a
little blue pill that's already helping older,
impotent men restore their sex lives.
That pill, Viagra, is now a popular club drug
that helps push sex to the limit.
Tonight on "Tech Live" we take you
inside the underground scene that has partying
kids engaging in risky behavior and health officials
worried about spreading diseases.
'Blue diamonds' aren't almonds
"Walk into sex clubs in different cities,
go online to different sex sites, and it's all
about Viagra," says Dr. Jeffrey Klausner,
deputy director of San Francisco's Department
of Public Health.
In the clubs and at parties, the pills are
called "blue diamonds," for Viagra's
blue color and diamond shape. The billion-dollar
drug is a gold mine for pharmaceutical giant
Pfizer, which earns nothing from underground
sales at sex clubs and raves.
C.J. Russell, 23, was a regular in the San
Francisco club scene, and he's a recovering
veteran of Viagra abuse.
"Viagra definitely means you can go from
one person to the other, to the next... almost
consecutively," he says.
Disease on the rise
And that's the problem, according to a San
Francisco Public Health study that connects
Viagra abuse to a surge in sexually transmitted
disease.
"People with these new STDs and new HIV
infection are between two and four times more
likely to have used Viagra," Klausner explains.
Viagra itself is not the problem. It's what
people do with the drug after they take it.
The pill does what it does -- inhibit an enzyme
so blood can flow into the penis and allow a
man to develop an erection. Ira Sharlip, a former
president of the American Urological Association
who practices at San Francisco's California
Pacific Medical Center, says Viagra won't make
a healthy man a super-stud.
"A man who has a 100 percent hard, rigid
erection cannot achieve more than that,"
he says. "There's a maximum erection that
you can get."
Snort rail, pop 'blue diamond'
The problem is that Viagra is now just one
popular ingredient of a club drug cocktail.
It's common to mix Viagra with drugs such as
Ecstasy, methamphetamines, or even cocaine.
They all boost the senses and pump up the sex
drive, but they also cause a form of impotence.
So when men want to have sex while high, Viagra
helps them party all night long.
"You already want to go longer when you're
under the use of other drugs," Russell
says, "and Viagra allows you."
Marathon sexual encounters with multiple partners
raises the risk of exposure to STDs, including
HIV. And that's what concerns organizations
such as San Francisco's Bay Area Positives,
which supports young people under 26 who've
been infected with HIV.
Easy to get, but not cheap
Curtis Moore, Bay Area Positive's education
coordinator, thinks infected members can help
influence young adults living with risk. Moore
says he strives to keep people free of HIV and
wants to spread the word that Viagra abuse invites
dangers that last for life.
Convincing people to steer clear of Viagra
is hard to do when it's openly sold over the
Internet and commonly traded underground. Illegal
pills sell for $20 to $30 apiece, at least twice
the cost of prescription pills.
C.J. Russell also worries about an expensive
form of addiction.
"When you're so used to a combination
like crystal [meth] and Viagra together, it's
really hard for some people -- I've heard the
experience
that they can't have sex without it," Russell
says.
Dangerous drug combos
Sexually transmitted diseases aren't the only
worry. Viagra and nitrates don't mix well, a
reason why heart patients on nitroglycerine
can't use Viagra -- the combination sinks blood
pressure. Some club drugs called "poppers"
contain nitrates, and Ira Sharlip says the combination
is just as bad.
"The combination rarely can be fatal,
but it has happened," he says.
The risks and dangers are well known to the
drug industry and the Food and Drug Administration.
But Klausner says, "We've shown these data
to the FDA, we've shown these data to the manufacturer,
[and] unfortunately at this point they're still
not compelled to take any effective action"
over abuse.
Pfizer, Viagra's manufacturer, insists it has
no control over abuse, and that packaging and
ads openly warn that Viagra doesn't protect
against AIDS. Two new competitors for Viagra's
business, Eli Lilly's Cialis and Levitra, from
Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline, also add the same
warning to their marketing. But Pfizer marketing
official Daniel Watts maintains that "stopping
Viagra abuse is the job for public health agencies,
and not us."
Insisting he's off club drugs and Viagra, C.J.
Russell now volunteers at Bay Area Positives
to help others hooked on Viagra drug cocktails.
He's determined to spread the word about the
risk because, he says, "If you go through
the fire, then you have an obligation to tell
people... that there is an outcome, a positive
outcome, that there is life after crystal --
life after Viagra."
Originally aired January 23, 2004
Modified January 26, 2004
source:-http://www.techtv.com
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