I’m sure you’ve seen displays of “male enhancement” products at your local gas station, liquor store, or head shop. With brand names like “Rhino Power 4000,” “Black Mamba,” or “X Rated Honey,” these “herbal” or “all natural” supplements boast that they will “increase stamina,” give you “rock hard power,” and “add inches.” The packaging may not state it directly, but the overall message is extremely clear: These pills treat erectile dysfunction.
If you’re like me, you’ve seen these pills and thought, “These would never work.” Well, my skeptical friend, this week we are the ones who are wrong. Gas station boner pills often work exactly as expected—but this isn’t because herbal ingredients like ginseng and Yohimbe bark are miracle cures for ED. It’s because many of these pills are basically mislabeled Viagra or Cialis. It’s true: The Food and Drug Administration has found all kinds of prescription medication in hundreds of different shady “supplements,” but you can still buy them. You shouldn’t, but you can.
How a rack full of unlicensed prescription pills came to be easily available at your local 7-11 is a twisty story. Most of these “supplements” originate in foreign factories, especially in China and India, where pharmaceutical manufacturing is cheaper and less tightly regulated. From there, they are distributed as “dietary supplements.”
Unlike prescription and over-the-counter drugs, dietary supplements don’t have to be tested by the Food and Drug Administration before they’re sold, so anyone who wants to make a quick buck can fill some capsules with dried grass, call it a supplement, and start selling it.
The FDA and supplement whack-a-mole
Of course, hiding the active ingredients in Viagra and Cialis in what you call a supplement is against the law, but the FDA doesn’t have enforcement power until after the sale. If people get sick or someone complains, the Feds can step in, but not before.
To its credit, the FDA steps in frequently. The agency maintains an ever-updated database of problematic “Sexual Enhancement and Energy Products,” where you can read all about the illicit ingredients in supplements like Green Lumber (contains tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis), HimGo (contains sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, and diclofenac, an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drug), and “Versace Real Honey” (sildenafil, tadalafil, and acetaminophen). The FDA even prosecutes people occasionally for selling this stuff, like Jacksonville “business executive” Jae Hong Kim who recently pled guilty to selling prescription drugs marketed as “Rhino 69” and “MegaZen Power 5000.”
But Kim’s story is the exception, not the rule. The FDA may pull Mega-Mamba Mojo pills from the market, but in a few weeks, your local gas station will be selling Lightning Lad Libido pills instead, maybe from the same shell company, but now with a different name. These pills can be produced for pennies and sold for up to $20 per, so the risk/reward ratio is solid for people who sell the stuff.
Why you should not take male “enhancement” products from gas stations
You shouldn’t take erection pills from a gas station; first, because you don’t need to be enhanced; you’re beautiful how you are, King. But if you’re treating erectile dysfunction, you can do better than a shady supplement. Taking strange pills from a gas station is a bad idea for a lot of reasons, including:
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Unknown dosage: Even if you know it’s sildenafil, you have no idea how much you’re taking, but it’s usually “a crap-ton.” FDA tests of these products have found amounts of prescription drugs well above what a doctor would order, and that often leads to severe headaches, low blood pressure, dizziness, vision changes, or even heart problems.
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Dangerous interactions: If you’re on heart meds, blood pressure drugs, or nitrates, ED drugs are generally not safe. For that matter, if you’re on any drug they’re generally not safe, because literally any drug could be in them.
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Randomness: Lack of honest labeling means that you might get Ginkgo Biloba when you’re hoping for Viagra, and vice-versa.
Instead of confiding in the guy behind the counter at your local head shop, talk to your doctor. They have heard it before, and the prices of real-deal E.D. are usually better than the gas station equivalent. It’s $2 to $10 per pill for generic sildenafil (Viagra) and about $6 to $18 per pill for generic tadalafil (Cialis), where gas station drugs can cost as much as $20 per dose.
Why they still sell
So these pills are dangerous, expensive, and shady, and the FDA constantly warns us not to take them. Why are they still everywhere? First because the minimal oversight of dietary supplements has been baked into law since the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) passed in 1994. But also because these pills offer both an easy solution and an illicit thrill. The combination of curiosity, desperation, and sheepishness makes those shiny packages by the slushie machine an irresistible impulse purchase to some, especially people who are too shy to discuss medical issues with their doctors. So they keep selling because impulse, embarrassment, and weak regulation all collide, and the result is a product that’s as easy to get as it is risky to take.
