Inside UK’s fake Viagra epidemic as party-loving lads reveal horror effects of 50p pills filled with ink & road paint
Share:
WITH a concerningly quick heartbeat, a swollen face and body that had erupted in painful red blotches, Ben* knew something was deeply wrong. Three days had passed since the 25-year-old had popped what he believed to be a real Viagra pill as he sought to spice up his sex life with his girlfriend.
![[Stashes of fake Viagra pills from one raid in the US - the tablets were sold widely in the UK]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/stiff-nights-story-stream-now-942628559.png?strip=all&w=960)
Despite getting frisky more than seven times within a matter of hours and then multiple times more over the 72-hour period, his erection hadn’t subsided. Ben (not his real name), who also suffered worrying health problems before the effects of the pill wore off, is among a growing number of young people to be stung by fake Viagra.
![[Police raided nine homes and two sophisticated labs over fake Viagra and other counterfeit meds in 2022]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/fd9d74a1-3ee2-4d33-9a08-bff5d8de6836_d2dd2f.jpg?strip=all&w=538)
They are now Britain’s best-selling knock-off drug with regulators seizing a record £6.2million of the dodgy pills last year - exceeding more than three million doses. The counterfeit tablets are being bought for as little as 50p online and flogged for triple that price, but concerningly, there are a range of deadly filler ingredients added when they are created in dodgy secret labs.
![[A Manchester operation made millions of pounds worth of fake Viagra]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/8074e47d-9af3-46fa-a840-9a8a2d681220.jpg?strip=all&w=619)
Some contain the Class A drug amphetamine, commonly known as speed, as well as blue printer ink, drywall, acid, road paint and a powerful antibiotic used to treat vaginal fungal infections. The substances can cause liver damage, irreversible health problems and even prove fatal due to increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes when unknowingly combined with other medications.
![[The arrest of one fake Viagra peddler in what was believed to be the world's biggest lab for the counterfeit blue pill]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/www-thesun-co-uk-news-958113490.jpg?strip=all&w=620)
