Male driver refuses breath test due to impotence drug

A DRIVER told police he was unable to carry out a breath test — because of side effects from a Viagra-style pill he had taken.

Neil Macdonald was stopped by police while behind the wheel of his Volkswagen Golf in Sinclair Street, Greenock, just after 8.25am under suspicion of driving while unfit through drink or drugs.

He was taken to Greenock Police Station to provide two samples, but failed to blow into the machine.

Macdonald claimed he was breathless because of the anti-impotency tablet he had taken 90 minutes before.

Macdonald denied failing to provide police with two specimens of breath for analysis on 12 December but was convicted after a trial at Greenock Sheriff Court last week.

Macdonald claimed he had taken Levitra, an anti-impotence drug prescribed to him by his doctor, at 7am.

Medical evidence provided by his defence team suggested Macdonald was telling the truth when claiming he was unable to blow hard enough into the machine to give a reading.

A report from Doctor Paul Skett said shortness of breath was a well-known side effect of the drug.

The court heard the 43-year-old, while in custody, had also asked officers if water he had drunk from the toilet would affect his alcohol reading.

After being asked to blow into the police testing equipment, the court heard Macdonald began to wheeze and cough, claiming the Levitra had left him too breathless to provide a sample.

After a two-hour trial, Macdonald was convicted by Sheriff Rajni Swanney, who said she was unimpressed by the accused’s claims.

Macdonald, of Clydeshore Road, Dumbarton, had sentence deferred until later this week.

Drug maker Pfizer posts profit growth

On Tuesday reported a 9 percent rise in second-quarter profit, trouncing Wall Street expectations as revenue jumped 58 percent due to favourable currency rates and its mega-acquisition of fellow drug maker Wyeth last October. Shares jumped 5 percent on the surprisingly strong report.

The maker of cholesterol blockbuster Lipitor and impotence pill Viagra said net income for the three months ended July 4 rose to $2.48 billion, or 31 cents per share. A year ago, income was $2.26 billion, or 34 cents a share. Pfizer has since sold millions of new shares to help pay for Wyeth.

Pfizer, the world’s biggest drug maker by sales, reported revenue of $17.33 billion, up from $10.98billion last year, mainly due to $5.4 billion from Wyeth products. U.S. sales jumped 63 percent and foreign sales, 54 percent.

Excluding 31 cents in one-time items, income was $4.96 billion, or 62 cents a share. Those items included $1.1 billion before taxes for integrating Wyeth’s systems, employee severance and other restructuring, plus $2.1 billion before taxes for various charges related to buying Wyeth.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected 52 cents a share on revenue of $16.65 billion.

Hugh Hefner Playboy owner & his Viagra secret

Hugh Hefner says he is still living the playboy life at a ripe old age of 84 – thanks to Viagra.



The Playboy magazine owner, who famously still has several live-in girlfriends, revealed: “Thank goodness for Viagra. But experience also helps. Woody Allen once said: ‘If you don’t think sex is dirty, you’re not doing it right’.”

The Playboy owner, who is said to have bedded 2,000 women, also explained why he took on several lovers after his marriage ended.

He told a newspaper: “Dealing with those seven girlfriends was easier than dealing with one wife.”

Bogalusa man charged in unprescribed Viagra case

A 28-year-old Bogalusa man has been charged with possession of a drug without a prescription after authorities say they seized about 1,500 Viagra tablets in a package addressed to him.

Investigators say they found an addition 150 Viagra tablets and 50 Cialis tablet after executing a search warrant in Jude Taylor's home. Both drugs are for erectile dysfunction.

Taylor was arrested Friday.

Nick Manale of the Louisiana State Police says the package with 1,500 tablets was shipped from China.

Agents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Postal Service, Bogalusa Police Department, Washington Parish Sheriff's Office and Louisiana State Police Narcotic detectives participated in the investigation.

Information from: Bogalusa - Daily News , http://www.edailynews.info/

Bournemouth set for new leader after porn & Viagra inquiry

A new Bournemouth council leader is to be announced after the previous leader resigned following an inquiry into pornographic images on his laptop.

Councillor Stephen MacLoughlin faces a public hearing next month over the images, although the council took no further action after its own inquiry.

Councillor Peter Charon was appointed leader of the ruling Conservative party on Friday.

The decision to take no further action prompted accusations of double standards, after about 20 employees were sent home "on leave" in March 2009 for sending an explicit joke e-mail about Viagra.

Source: and for further reading http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10617749

PAIR STOLE £150K IN VIAGRA FRAUD

Office manager Carol Jones stole more than £150,000 from her bosses to fund a luxury lifestyle in a scam dubbed "keeping up with the Joneses".
Although the landscaping company run by her husband Jonathan, a former Tory councillor, was crippled with debt, the pair went on £5,000 Caribbean holidays and funded a £3,250 wedding reception.
They drove a Mercedes and Land Rover, bought designer jewellery and spent £5,000 on granite kitchen worktops plus a plasma TV.


But the scam was uncovered in spring 2007 when her bosses at Pfizer - the drugs firm that makes Viagra - found Jones had been siphoning cash to her husband's firm TIL Developments.
At Manchester Crown Court the couple, of Winsford, Cheshire, who are divorcing, were found guilty of fraud. Carol was jailed for 16 months, her husband got 19.
Det Con Neil Slater, of West Didsbury CID, said: "Their grasping knew no bounds. This wasn't so much keeping up with the Joneses - it was more like the Joneses trying to keep up with everyone else."


Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/07/11/pair-stole-150k-in-viagra-fraud-115875-22404299/#ixzz0tYQFNXwW
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Viagra-popping seniors lead the pack for STDs

Even if you're past your prime and have a hard time getting an erection, you might still need to worry about unprotected sex, according to U.S. doctors.

In fact, they report in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the rate of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in older men taking erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra is twice as high as in their non-medicated peers.




In both groups, however, the numbers are swelling. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were more than six new cases of STDs per 10,000 men over 40 in 2008, up almost 50 percent since 1996.
"Younger adults have far more STDs than older adults, but the rates are growing at far higher rates in older adults," said Dr. Anupam B. Jena of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who led the study.
While the reasons for this development aren't well understood, he said more divorces and better health might have conspired to boost sexual prowess and activity among graying heads.
The problem, however, is that older adults appear to flout safe sex practices. For instance, the researchers note, 50-year-olds are six times less likely to use a condom than men in their 20s.
"We are typically unaccustomed to practice safe sex over the age of 50, because the risk of pregnancy is eliminated," Jena told Reuters Health.

To test whether the introduction of Viagra in 1998 might explain some of the STD surge, Jena and colleagues examined insurance records for more than 1.4 million U.S. men over 40. The average age in the study was about 60 years.
The most commonly found STD was HIV, followed by chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhea.
Among the few percent of men who had filled prescriptions for erectile dysfunction drugs, more than two in a thousand had been treated for an STD in the year before they got the drug.
A year later, the number dropped to half that, suggesting that Viagra and its chemical cousins didn't fuel STDs.

However, the risk of contracting an STD turned out to be more than twice as high in men taking erectile dysfunction drugs compared with those who didn't.
"These users have a different sexual risk profile than non-users," said Jena, adding that the data didn't reveal any good explanation.
In an editorial, Dr. Thomas Fekete, of Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, noted that it would have been valuable to know more about the frequency of sexual encounters, sexual partners and orientation.

He added that prevention strategies should still be directed at younger age groups, whose STD risk is at least 10 times higher than in middle-aged and older adults.
Still, he said, the authors remind us "that men older than 40 years remain sexually active, even if they need chemical assistance to do so. This study also serves as a reminder that sex after age 40 years is not necessarily safe."
Jena recommended that doctors take a few minutes to discuss safe sex with older men when they prescribe Viagra.
His advice? "Look, just realize that you are at higher risk for STDs, and try to be careful like you used to be 30 years ago."

SOURCE: www.annals.org/

Annals of Internal Medicine, online July 5, 2010.