DETROIT – A lawyer said dozens of Metro Detroit gas stations were selling real Viagra while billing it as an all-natural supplement.
Viagra can only be sold with a prescription and can be very dangerous if taken while not under the supervision of a doctor.
But a lawsuit claims Viagra was sold by the pill to anyone who wanted it from gas station shelves in Metro Detroit.
Los Angeles Attorney Robert Tauler said he has another lawsuit waiting in the wings, but the current suit is about the product Rhino Platinum 8000 and others like it.
Some party stores offer products that can't be found elsewhere, including certain male enhancement pills.
Tauler filed nine suits against mostly Sunoco gas stations, such as the one on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn. He claims it's all about money.
"On a bag of Skittles, they may make 50 cents," Tauler said. "On a product like this, which they buy for $1 or $2 and sell for $10, they're making $8 a pop. That's why you sell them at the front of the store."
The product promises time, size and stamina without headaches. It promises to be perfectly safe, but Tauler said that's not the case.
He said the product is made in China, and buyers have no idea that it contains Viagra and depressants in an uncontrolled manufacturing environment. He wants 64 stations all around Metro Detroit to take the pills off their shelves.
Tauler represents an herbal supplement company he said offers an all-natural competitor that doesn't harm people.
In Dearborn, gas station managers said they don't sell the "bad stuff." The Detroit gas station started taking Rhino 8 down when Local 4 asked why they sell it.
"People can basically mix up any concoction they want, and it's buyer beware," Local 4 medical expert Dr. Frank McGeorge said. "You have no idea what you are taking and you are taking all the risk."
Local 4 called Sunoco media relations Monday and received no response. None of the stations Local 4 contacted would discuss the issue.