I just realized I should have entitled this, "One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small. But the ones that CP Direct sells, don't do anything at all..."
I'd agree that anyone stupid enough to buy something from spam deserves what happens, except this creates a license to steal. (If there were no economic incentive to send out billions of emails, my mailbox wouldn't be packed fuller than the return room at Amazon. So any legal authority that can stop those criminals from spamming is a good thing.)
Since there was interest, I dug out the story I remembered reading in the Wall Street Journal about how these pills are contaminated with e. coli:
"I think it's safe to say it has heavy fecal contamination," Michael Donnenberg, head of the infectious disease department at the University of Maryland. Mmmmm!
(I found the article on the net somewhere, since I don't have a WSJ online subscription. Can you believe they make you buy another one even if you have a print subscription? Idiots!)
*****
Penis 'Enlargement' Pills Pack Impurities by Julia Angwin
Wall Street Journal
August 13, 2003
Performance Marketing, Ltd., one of the world's purveyors of so-called penis enlargement pills. Once relegated to the back pages of dirty magazines, Performance marketing and it's rivals - thanks to email marketing partners - are among the pushiest of all pill pushers.
But don't bank on the promised "three inches." There is no scientific evidence that any pill can enlarge the penis, says Franklin C. Lowe, professor of clinical urology at columbia University. "If it were legitimate," he says, " I'd be a billionaire." What some customers might get from Performance Marketing's pills is a less-than-sexy dose of bacteria and other contaminants. Commissioned by the Wall street Journal, Flora Research, san Juan Capistrano, Calif., conducted an independent laboratory analysis of a composite sample of 10 Performance Marketing pills and turned up significant levels of E. coli, yeast, mold, lead and pesticides residues. The amount of E. coli bacteria - 16.300 colony forming units per gram- appears to be particularly high, experts say. "I think it's safe to say it has heavy fecal contamination," Michael Donnenberg, head of the infectious disease department at the University of Maryland.
Canada, which requires that any product making health claims must be approved by the government, hasn't approved sales of the pills. In March, Canadian authorities blocked Performance MArketing from receiving a shipment of product until it removed all claims regarding sexual impotence from its website.
The Optimum pills are advertised as containing herbs such as ginko biloba, Korean re ginseng, and saw palmetto. " Optimum penis enlargement products are a 100% safe and natural penis enlargement pill that is guaranteed to increase penis size by an average of 28%," the website proclaims. The Journal's independent analysis concluded that the capsules did contain ginko and ginseng. However, the analysis also revealed the presence of bacteria, heavy metals and pesticide residues. The pills far exceed suggested limits set by ConsumerLab.com LLC, an independent rating agency for the nutritional supplemental industry, for coliform, a type of bacteria that can indicate contamination from water or feeces. "You'd probably be spending more time in the bathroom than in the bedroom with this product," says Todd Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com. Yeast and mold counts also exceeded ConsumerLab.com's limits. The amount of lead in a daily dose of three Optimum pills surpassed the limit set by California's strict labeling laws for "chemicals causing reproductive toxicity." - James R Hagerty contributed to this article
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Another story:
MSNBC Story
Giving Americans a first glimpse of an industry flourishing at the intersection of larceny and libido, authorities in Arizona are seizing the assets of a Scottsdale company that sold more than $74 million worth of pills that it claimed would enlarge penises or breasts, make the consumer taller or hairier ? even sharpen his or her golf game. But despite such audacious claims, the company ? C.P. Direct ? would likely still be gouging the gullible if its founders hadn?t decided to also illegally charge consumers? credit cards, industry insiders say.
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