VIAGRA HITS RAVE CLUB SCENE

CALGARY -- Nightclubbers and rave-goers are mixing Viagra with illicit drugs
despite warnings that they could be setting themselves up for heart-attacks,
health experts say.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer introduced erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra to
Canada more than a year ago. Sales have topped $1 billion.

But it's not just men with erection problems who are using it. Through
online sales, Viagra is coming into favour at raves.

"I've heard of the recreational use of it in Calgary by younger people,"
says Dr. Curtis Bell, a physician subcontracted by Pfizer to lecture on the
drug's use in Alberta.

"Its attraction lies in the user being able to have more prolonged erections
and hence have sex for a longer duration."

Calgary police drug squad Det. Steve Walton has seized quantities of the
prescribed medication in other illegal-drug busts.

"Calgary seems to copycat the Toronto culture and I expect there to be a
surge of the drug here over the summer," he says.

Rave drugs such as ecstasy impair male sexual function. It's known as the
"hug drug," since it increases the desire to touch and be touched, even
though it reduces the libido. But used in combination with Viagra it can
raise sexual desire.

Pfizer warns against using Viagra with ecstasy or with nitrate-based drugs
such as poppers (amyl and butryl nitrate).

"Viagra is not an aphrodisiac and has no effect on the libido," says Don
Sancton, director of corporate affairs for Pfizer Canada.

"It should only be used by people with erectile dysfunction and treated with
all the respect given a prescription drug."

Sancton said Pfizer isn't sure what the effects of Viagra are in combination
with ecstasy because the company doesn't conduct research on illicit drugs.

But Judith Aldridge, who with her colleagues at Manchester University in
England has studied it, says Viagra in combination with these drugs may lead
to dangerously low blood-pressure levels.

Aldridge and two colleagues conducted a study with 2,000 participants on
Viagra use in English clubs.

Three weeks after Viagra was released to the British public, they found
three per cent of clubbers had admitted to using it.

"Our biggest concern was that people were using it in combination with
poppers," she said."Since they both affect the circulatory system, this
creates a big risk for heart-attack and stroke."

Drugs at raves are under the spotlight in Toronto -- considered the rave
capitalof North America -- since the death of a teen who overdosed on
ecstasy, ana mphetamine-based drug.

An inquest is being held into the death of Allen Ho, a university student
who collapsed last October at after taking ecstasy.

Thirteen young people, nine of them from the Toronto area, have died of
ecstasy-related overdoses since January 1999.

Alex D., editor and publisher of Toronto-based Tribe magazine, considered a
leading authority on raves, says Viagra is popular in the nightclub scene,
although not as common as in England or in the U.S.

It's not difficult to buy Viagra. It can be bought online from an American
or Mexican store with a credit card and delivered to your door the next day.

The only stipulation is that the buyer be 18 and fill out a "questionnaire"
verifying the need for the drug.