VIAGARA AVAILABLE ONLY ON BLACK MARKET IN MUCH OF ARAB WORLD

Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt - The male potency pill Viagra sells for $100 a tablet on the
black market in Kuwait and has become the subject of wishful cartoons and
religious debate as word of its power spreads through the Arab world.

But at least five Arab countries have banned the pill on medical grounds,
saying they must conduct their own health tests before it can go on the market.

Many men in the Middle East - the sexually frustrated and the merely curious
- - are angry that government bureaucracy is preventing them from benefiting
from the new performance-enhancing drug.

Last week, Egypt ordered the confiscation of thousands of Viagra pills being
sold illegally, and Viagra also has been banned in Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Even Israel ordered doctors to stop
prescribing Viagra after the pill's manufacturer, Pfizer Inc., reported six
deaths among users in the United States.

"Has medicine in Egypt ... advanced beyond medicine in the United States and
Europe, such that (we) reject what medical circles there have approved?"
columnist Salah Montasser wrote in the daily Al-Ahram on Monday.

Hatem Kamal, a 28-year-old English teacher in Cairo, agreed.

"Egyptians today face countless problems, not the least of which is sexual
frustration," Mr. Kamal said. "If this (drug) is going to help, then why not
give them the chance for relief?"

The bans have spawned a black market that charges $35 a pill in Egypt and
$100 a pill in Kuwait; in the United States, one tablet costs $10. And they
helped make Viagra the subject of cartoons and a source of debate in
roadside cafes, mosques and the Egyptian Parliament.

A cartoon in Kuwait's al-Rai al-Amm newspaper shows a soldier telling his
officer: "Sir, the weapons are ready. All they need is Viagra." The
soldier's gun and the barrels of three tanks behind him are all limp.

The Egyptian Parliament's health committee is scheduled to discuss a draft
law Thursday calling for a year in jail and a $1,500 fine for selling Viagra.

But Zakaria Gad, head of Egypt's pharmacist union, said the drug is being
sold "by the cartons" in working-class neighborhoods and warned that a ban
will not halt its distribution.

In Egypt alone, Viagra could benefit 3.5 million men, sexologist Khaled
Lotfy was quoted as saying in an article in the weekly magazine Rose El-Youssef.

In conservative Saudi Arabia, the clergy joined the debate and came out in
support of those seeking to legalize Viagra.

A leading judge issued a fatwa, or religious decree, approving Viagra's use
in certain cases, noting that "potency is required" of men.

Viagra can be used "for the sake of marriage and to have children," said
Sheik Ibrahim al-Khadeiry, adding that Islam's Prophet Mohammed had an
active sex life with his wives.

But the fatwa is not binding, and the Saudi government has refused to budge
in its prohibition of the drug.

After the six U.S. deaths, Pfizer repeated its warning that patients on
nitroglycerine and related heart drugs shouldn't use Viagra. There also have
been reports of health complications in the Middle East.

Three elderly men were hospitalized Monday in Cairo because of a severe drop
in blood pressure after taking Viagra. Four Saudi men also were reported
hospitalized Tuesday, including one who suffered a heart attack. It wasn't
clear whether the illnesses were related to the drug.

Regardless of whether the Arab world's caution is medically justified,
Egypt's Health Minister Ismail Salam argues that impotence is, in the end,
determined by a higher authority.

"God created the weakness with old age as a kind of balance ... to reduce
desire on a level appropriate with age," he said.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett