Sex Pill Health Warning Issued

February 25, 2012

Douglas Quan reports for Postmedia News, 23 Feb 2012:

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/pills+seized+from+Ontario+stores/6200041/story.html

Health authorities have seized a variety of unauthorized and "potentially dangerous" drugs at sex shops across Ontario, officials announced Thursday.

The drugs were sold under the brand names Stiff4Ever and PurePillz and were sold at The Love Shop outlets in that province.

Stiff4Ever, which is advertised as a male sexual stimulant, was found to contain "undeclared prescription medication," according to a Health Canada news release. The release identified the medication as sildenafil, the drug found in Viagra.

Combined with any nitrate drug, such as nitroglycerine, sildenafil can cause potentially life-threatening low-blood pressure, officials said. People with heart problems are also at higher risk of cardio-vascular side-effects if they use sildenafil.

PurePillz, meanwhile, was found to contain BZP and TFMPP. Health Canada is currently considering adding those substances to the country's list of controlled drugs and substances.

BZP is a synthetic substance with stimulant-like effects, while TFMPP is a synthetic substance with hallucinogenic effects. These substances can cause a rise in body temperature, blood pressure and heart rate, as well as an abnormal heart rhythm, nausea and vomiting, officials said.

Messages left at The Love Shop's head office were not immediately returned.

Health Canada has issued a number of warnings in recent years about unauthorized products being sold at sex shops across the country.

Last July, Health Canada officials announced that they had removed Man Up Now pills from O! Behave retail stores in British Columbia after testing found they contained sildenafil.

A year earlier, Health Canada warned about UP Ultimate Performance for Men sexual enhancement products that were being distributed by Vitality Research Inc., because they, too, contained sildenafil.