Here at Londonist we simply cannot resist the lure of putting up a dodgy headline like that. Indulge us.
A London Pharmacist was this week apparently sentenced for buying fake Viagra online (which is not in itself a crime) and passing it off to his customers as the real deal (which is a big no-no).
It would have been completely legal to have bought this stuff and then sell it on to the US or elsewhere, but it can't be sold within the UK without a license - and so Hitendra Patel from Worcester Park (Sutton) was convicted and fined. Without being regulated, these pills could also have been made of mushed up blue chalk with less impact on libido than your average pork pie, but we suppose the patients might have noticed after a while.
The UK's own medicines regulatory body seems to be stepping up its efforts to catch people like this, if earlier reports of similar misdeeds in Slough are true. They now employ undercover agents to pose as customers suffering erectile dysfunction to catch these fraudsters out.
If only the agency could tackle the volume of Viagra email spam we all receive. At last we've found the place on the interweb where these people steal their email Subject Lines. Our favourites? "The Most Defiant Fillies Will Strive For Riding Your New Big Italian Stallion"; "Make An Elephant Out Of Your Ant"; and the almost poetic "Go To The Disco And Let Your Love Stick Glow". Or, at least until recently, "Pop To Your Local Pharmacist In Sutton".
Image from ecatoncheires' Flickrstream
