Gas Station Drugs: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

0:00 Our main story tonight concerns drugs.

0:07 We've talked about all sorts of them before,

0:09 from opioids to compounded drugs to psychedelics to opioids again to lethal

0:14 injection drugs to opioids for a third and final time to, of course,

0:17 a bonus opioid story.

0:19 But tonight, we're going to talk about so-called gas station drugs.

0:22 You know, the colorful products with weird names you

0:24 tend to see behind the counter at gas stations,

0:26 convenience stores, and smoke shops.

0:28 It's a whole weird world of poppers,

0:31 whippetss, questionable supplements, and boner pills.

0:33 And if you are wondering who buys those last ones,

0:36 I'll let this convenience store clerk fill you in.

0:39 This is why I got to leave Circle K soon, bro.

0:41 For real.

0:41 Like, so today I was just chilling, right?

0:44 Working, whatever.

0:45 This white dude come up.

0:46 He's like, "Yo, you got any any dick pills?

0:49 Like rhino dick pills?" And he did this with his arm.

0:51 I was like, "We had these." He's like, "Fuck it, bro.

0:53 Let me take him." I was like, "All right,

0:54 bet." And while he was paying and he he opened it and he he popped one.

1:00 He went and he popped one in his mouth.

1:02 And I was like and he was like, "Shit." And then he popped another one.

1:07 I was like, "Oh my What are you doing, bro?

1:11 Why the did you take two in a public area like this?

1:14 You couldn't go home?

1:15 You couldn't wait till you go home?

1:17 Like, what the is going on, son?" Yeah, all valid questions.

1:22 And I will say after hearing that, I won't feel nearly as bad

1:24 the next time I open a Gatorade at the register before paying.

1:27 Look, I'll pay FOR IT IN A SECOND, BUT trust me, this could be way weirder.

1:32 But again, it's not just boner pills.

1:34 These products are part of a sprawling industry,

1:36 and they promise everything from increased energy to pain relief.

1:39 And while you might assume that they're just snake oil,

1:42 that's not necessarily true.

1:44 Some of these drugs can be actively dangerous,

1:46 presenting risks of addiction, just like controlled substances.

1:49 And here's some who've been addicted to them tell it.

1:52 The very fact that that's been allowed to happen is pretty infuriating.

1:56 It's a common sight in gas station convenience stores across the country.

1:59 So-called natural supplements on display

2:02 starting in like 2015 2014 had an opiate aisle.

2:07 This is what Hooked looked like for Brandon.

2:10 250 bottles consumed in one month at the height of his addiction.

2:15 There is so much that is alarming there.

2:17 From the notion of a gas station having an opiate

2:19 aisle to the fact that I'm just going to say it,

2:21 that is too many tiny bottles of anything to go through in a month.

2:25 Whether it's gas station supplements, airplane bottles of vodka,

2:28 or even travel size Olay body wash.

2:31 First, buy full size.

2:32 Don't live like this.

2:33 But also, that's just too many bottles.

2:35 HOW DIRTY ARE YOU GETTING?

2:37 I'm worried about you.

2:40 And the thing is, stories like that are becoming

2:42 more common as people increasingly seek these drugs out.

2:45 For some, it may be for recreational use because these products

2:48 generally don't get detected on drug tests, but for others,

2:51 it may be because they don't have access to health care,

2:53 have a mistrust of mainstream science,

2:55 or are self-treating anxiety, depression, fatigue, or opioid withdrawal.

2:59 The problem is though, these drugs exist in a regulatory wild west.

3:04 And in part, that is by their own design.

3:06 Many of the companies behind them

3:08 try to evade regulation with creative labeling,

3:10 marketing them with language like for research

3:12 purposes only or not for human consumption.

3:15 But the most common tactic is simply labeling the product a dietary supplement.

3:20 And that is because this 1994 law exempted

3:23 the supplement industry from nearly all federal regulations.

3:26 We actually talked about that before in our piece on Dr.

3:29 Ross and nutritional supplements, which by the way ended with Steve Pashmi

3:32 tap dancing in front of a kid's marching band.

3:35 Just trust me, it made sense at the time.

3:38 But thanks to that law,

3:40 there is currently no central process whereby products calling themselves

3:43 supplements are tested or approved before they hit the shelves.

3:47 And while there are some rules they

3:49 have to follow regarding ingredients and marketing, many simply ignore them.

3:52 All of which means the FDA and other

3:55 regulators are essentially playing an impossible game of catchup.

3:58 And the result of that can be a guy with a pile

4:00 of bottles on his lawn wondering how the that was allowed to happen.

4:05 And that's actually the least of the consequences here.

4:07 So given all of that, tonight let's look at gas station drugs.

4:10 And to do that, we're going to focus on three areas in particular.

4:13 Sexual enhancements products,

4:15 a substance calledratum and its associated compound 70 and TNT.

4:20 And let's start with the sexual enhancement stuff.

4:22 Products like boner pills can be hard to miss,

4:25 especially because they often have over-the-top

4:27 names and packaging involving an animal.

4:30 For instance, there's Black Panther, Blue Panther, Black Horse,

4:34 The Goat, Super Bowl, Rammit, Gold Lion, Super Cheetah,

4:39 Anaconda, Rhino 8, Rhino 11, Rhino 69, of course,

4:44 Rhino 96, Rhino 99, and my personal favorite,

4:47 Boda Bears, which apparently contains a proprietary Bona Bear blend,

4:53 a cursed series of words, and which features this image,

4:57 which looks LIKE WHAT A BEANIE BABY WOULD

4:59 if it walked in on its parents having sex.

5:03 But boner pills actually demonstrate pretty effectively the extent to which

5:07 gas station drugs can be made by just about anyone.

5:10 And I do mean anyone.

5:12 It's not like there's a single company making all

5:15 of these dick pills and filling them with drugs.

5:18 What actually happens is that the empty packaging for many

5:21 of the most common sexual enhancement

5:23 supplements gets purchased online from China.

5:26 Then the packages get filled by an unknown number of entities.

5:30 Finally, the pills show up in stores around the country.

5:33 To show how easy it is to get into the dick pill business,

5:36 we ordered a sample of empty rhino packaging from Alibaba.

5:40 Now, if we wanted to, we could fill them with oregano or pop rocks or dirt.

5:45 We could also fill the pills with natural

5:47 herbal supplements as the labels advertise or pharmaceuticals,

5:51 both of which are sold on Alibaba.

5:53 Yeah, that's not ideal, is it?

5:55 You don't want a pill's ingredients to be essentially dealer's choice.

5:59 And you would never tolerate that level of variance in other products.

6:02 You would be justifiably annoyed if it turned out that some

6:04 Cadbury Cream eggs were filled with marinara sauce instead of what

6:09 they're supposed to be filled with, the Easter Bunny's thick

6:11 thick And if you if YOU THOUGHT THAT CLIP WAS EXAGGERATING,

6:16 just watch what happened when they bought what looks like

6:19 the same pill from two different stores right here in New York.

6:23 The packaging on these products was exactly the same.

6:26 But when we opened the pills,

6:27 it was evident there was inconsistency between the contents,

6:30 colors, and textures.

6:32 Yeah, those two powders are clearly very different.

6:35 One just looks like sand, while the other looks more like cremated Snoopy.

6:39 And obviously, I hope it's not that.

6:42 Unless that is Snoopy's will specifically directed his heirs

6:45 to shove my remains into a gas station dick bill,

6:48 in which case I'm thankful his final wish was fulfilled.

6:51 Woodstock.

6:52 May his memory be a blessing.

6:54 The point is, these pills could contain literally anything,

6:58 including, as they just said,

7:00 actual pharmaceutical ingredients,

7:02 though importantly not necessarily in careful or consistent dosages.

7:06 Some rhino pills have been shown to contain selenaphil and tadalapil,

7:10 the respective active ingredients in Viagra

7:12 and Seialis and sometimes at extremely high doses,

7:16 which isn't good given that both drugs

7:18 can lower blood pressure to dangerous levels,

7:20 particularly if they interact with other medications.

7:23 So, someone who can't get from their doctor for good reason might turn

7:28 to these supplements without knowing they're about to get a mega dose of it.

7:33 One pill was found to contain 14 times

7:35 the amount of active ingredient contained in a seialis pill.

7:38 Meanwhile, others were found to include dyes

7:40 and filler like blue printer ink and drywall.

7:43 So, on one hand, these pills could end up poisoning you.

7:46 But on the other, if your printer runs out of blue ink,

7:49 just jam a few boner pills in the cartridge

7:51 and you can finish printing off your Smurf porn.

7:55 And because the FDA is basically par, you know, stop stop.

7:59 Uh, stop stop.

8:00 Take it down.

8:00 Take it down.

8:01 Because the FDA is basically powerless before a problem emerges,

8:06 the main action it often takes is

8:08 to simply offer public warnings to avoid certain products.

8:12 That is why you can come across an official FDA release like this one

8:16 which reads FDA continues to advise consumers

8:18 not to purchase or use Schwing products,

8:22 which is embarrassing enough even before you

8:24 realize that the release included this image

8:25 of the packaging featuring the brand's mascot seen

8:28 here answering the question, "What if Alfred E.

8:30 Newman got heavily into gooning.

8:33 The FDA's also publicly warned against, and these are all real,

8:36 my steel woody, willy go wild, big penis,

8:41 Australia kangaroo essence, strong horses, bull's genital, and bigger,

8:45 longer, more time, more sperms, which is just immaculate.

8:50 AMC, please bring back Madmen because I so badly want

8:55 to see an entire episode about Don Draper pitching a bigger,

8:58 longer, more time, more sperms ad campaign.

9:01 It's not a dick pill, it's a carousel.

9:04 What I'm saying is these pills can be subject to far

9:08 less oversight and be much more dangerous than you would reasonably hope.

9:12 And that is also true of the next

9:14 product that we're going to be looking at tonight.

9:16 It's made from the leaves of theratum tree in Southeast Asia.

9:19 In its natural form and smaller doses,

9:21 it's generally considered safe and acts as a stimulant.

9:24 But in higher doses,

9:26 it becomes more of a seditive with addictive opioid- like properties.

9:29 Crat's become increasingly popular with millions

9:32 of people estimated to use it nationwide.

9:34 And it speaks to its growing popularity that at trade shows

9:37 for smoke shops companies will happily brag about their expansion plans.

9:42 This show is huge forum.

9:43 Now we just got into edibles and some drinks and things like that.

9:47 Jelly 70 botanicals is our newest line of gummies.

9:52 I'm with this company Hydroxy.

9:53 We're a single alphoid extract company and we're going

9:56 to be the strongest most purest on the market right now.

9:59 We're the first extract enhanced powder and capsule on the market.

10:02 Do we want it to be a soccer mom brand that you

10:04 know just to get your energy in the morning instead of something else?

10:07 You know what I mean?

10:08 Yeah, I do know what you mean, bro.

10:10 Uh, and I've got to say there's a lot that is offputting there.

10:13 From the way Colby here talks about soccer moms to this guy

10:16 being so wet to the unappealing flavors of cratom on display,

10:21 including fresh grape, mocha taffy, and Dave's brew.

10:25 If your product is referring to Dave,

10:27 and I don't know who the Dave is, I'm not feeling inherently confident in it.

10:32 Creative products are usually marketed as an energy booster,

10:35 a mood lifter, or a pain reducer.

10:37 But there are a number of potential problems.

10:39 Starting with the fact that because many states have

10:42 no requirement for labeling when it comes to these products,

10:44 it can be hard to know exactly what you are buying.

10:48 When the Tampa Bay Times ran an investigation on, they tested 20 products.

10:52 And while some came in proper packaging like these, others like

10:56 this one labeled train wreck were just powder in a bag.

11:00 And if you think train wreck looks alarming, may I introduce you to red?

11:04 Just red, a bag of something with the word red sharpied on it.

11:10 The Times found that of the products they tested,

11:12 five had no information about ingredients, 11 had no dosing instructions,

11:16 and 13 had no details about potency,

11:19 which probably shouldn't be that surprising given,

11:21 again, one of those products was a bag of something called red.

11:25 And the thing is, even when products are packaged and have dosing information,

11:30 the packaging itself may not encourage proper usage, as this expert points out.

11:35 Can you read this label here?

11:37 So, at the very bottom, it says to not consume more than

11:41 onethird of that bottle within a 24-hour period, but it's sold as a shot, right?

11:47 And that's clearly a problem because everybody knows

11:50 a bottle's type dictates how you drink its contents.

11:53 If it's in a tiny shot bottle, you drink it all at once.

11:56 If it's in a big tall bottle, you pour it into a glass.

11:58 And if it's in a Budlike lime bottle, you throw it directly into the trash.

12:01 These are the basic rules of beverage consumption.

12:06 We even found one derived product that claims

12:08 a single tablet contains eight servings mean

12:11 you'd have to break it into eight pieces even though it's only scored into four.

12:17 And the thing is because these products can seem low risk,

12:20 people can feel way too comfortable taking much more than the recommended dose.

12:24 Just listen to this ex exchange that Joe Rogan had with a guest.

12:28 I was on this uh discussion about cretam.

12:31 Are you familiar with this?

12:32 I'm on it right now.

12:33 Oh wow.

12:33 Yeah, I just took some.

12:34 I I my knee up the other day.

12:36 I did something and uh it's been stiff and painful.

12:40 So, I iced it before I came here and then I just took uh took six of them.

12:44 See what happens.

12:46 Wow.

12:46 Took 10 once.

12:48 Now I get why people might think it's a drug.

12:52 Yeah, for sure.

12:53 But when I took four, I was like, well, I took two for the first time I took it,

12:57 I took two and a couple times I took two.

12:59 I'm like, this is like a mild stimulant.

13:00 But then when you get into the range of 8 to 10 pills,

13:04 it's like, "Oh, this this will you up." This stuff,

13:09 the stuff I take is Urban Ice Organics and um See, it says it says take two.

13:20 Joe Joey.

13:23 Josephine, what the are you doing?

13:27 You didn't even know the name of the pill or how many you WERE SUPPOSED TO TAKE.

13:31 What did you know because it seems the main

13:34 knowledge you had about those pills before taking them was

13:36 that they were pills and that was apparently enough

13:40 for you to happily toss half a dozen of them back.

13:42 But it really is worth knowing exactly what you're ingesting and the potential

13:47 dangers because the truth is products can be addictive as this woman found.

13:53 Amy has been addicted toratom for nearly a decade.

13:57 And she didn't buy it from a dealer or off the street.

14:02 Instead, she got these tiny bottles ofratom extract known as K

14:06 shots from a place many of you frequent every day.

14:10 I worked in a gas station behind my house trying not to take opiates

14:14 cuz opiates are bad and it was in a little display right beside me.

14:17 90% of my money goes to this.

14:19 The average price ofratom is around $15 to $25

14:23 per bottle or for the two pack of pills.

14:26 Amy admits she spent more than $100,000 in one year on this substance.

14:32 If you think about it,

14:33 that is the price of four Honda Civic LX sedans or high-end RV.

14:41 I mean,

14:43 yeah, I guess that is true.

14:46 But it's also a pretty strange way

14:48 to illustrate the purchasing power of $100,000.

14:52 Because you don't expect the takeaway from that story to be,

14:54 if this woman wasn't addicted to, she'd be rolling in Honda Civics right now.

14:59 Also, for what it's worth,

15:00 I don't need the news to tell me the price of high-end recreational vehicles.

15:04 I'm well aware of the cost.

15:05 And so, by the way, is Clarence Thomas.

15:08 Now a key reason someraton products have

15:12 the potential for addiction is because certain components

15:14 of theratum plant like metroin interact with the same

15:18 receptors in your brain as opioids and while

15:22 there is metroin inratum in its natural state

15:24 some manufacturers will concentrate it in their products

15:27 and others will go even further by synthesizing

15:29 a compound fromratum called 7 hydroxygrain or 70.

15:34 It's a substance that researchers have found binds

15:36 to the opioid receptors at least seven times stronger than morphine.

15:39 As one researcher put it,

15:40 the difference between naturalratum and 70 is like the difference

15:44 between drinking a Miller light versus drinking 12 ounces of Everclear.

15:48 Some products have now even ditched the word

15:51 completely and just put 70 front and center.

15:54 And sales have exploded.

15:56 Here was the head of one company who expanded from CBD products to 70,

16:00 marveling at just how quickly his new product line took off.

16:04 I've truly never seen a product with the type of sales this has.

16:08 It it uh you know, we had a 10-year lead with Cannabis

16:13 products and I've just never seen anything move like this does.

16:18 We are actually doing more sales with 70

16:22 than we are all the cannabis products combined.

16:26 Wow.

16:26 And we're talking about something we've been

16:27 doing for a few months versus a decade.

16:30 Yeah.

16:30 It turns out 708 products are as popular as that man's shirt is.

16:33 Distractingly red.

16:35 That is Vince Saunders, one of 70's loudest proponents.

16:38 Fun fact, he was once a car salesman/largescale illegal marijuana dealer.

16:43 And even funner fact, after he was arrested in 2000,

16:46 his attorney argued in court to void his prison term,

16:48 citing, among other things, the tax revenue lost from having the number

16:52 one Acura salesman in the US behind bars.

16:55 and I shouldn't go to prison because I'm America's number

16:58 one Acura salesman might be the saddest sentence of all time.

17:02 Aside from I shouldn't go to prison

17:04 because I'm America's number two Acura salesman.

17:07 And while some manufacturers position their products as pain relievers

17:11 or or even as an offramp for people from more dangerous drugs,

17:15 just as many seem to market them with a knowing

17:18 wink to consumers about their similarity to illicit substances.

17:21 There is Dopium, which is pretty on the nose,

17:24 but also Opia and Perks and Bars, as well as Roxy, Droxy, and Moxy.

17:31 And the addictive nature of these products can

17:32 be especially rough for people like this woman

17:34 who'd already been through an opioid addiction

17:37 and thought in 70 that she'd found something safe.

17:41 This month, Madison McManis found herself

17:43 in a place she never wanted to see again.

17:46 Drug rehab.

17:47 Really disappointed in myself.

17:48 I didn't think that I would be there again.

17:51 Um yeah, it was really hard, you know.

17:54 Um lying in the detox for I think 3 days just catatonic.

17:59 My body was just I mean everything was on fire.

18:02 It hurt.

18:02 I just didn't want to do it anymore.

18:04 She was 6 and 1/2 years clean from heroin.

18:07 When a friend suggested she try 7 to help with anxiety products like these.

18:13 As soon as I took that 70, it was like taking heroin again for the first time.

18:18 Wow.

18:18 It was like taking heroin.

18:20 Look, you expect people to say that about doing things like fentinel or watching

18:25 a Halloween dog parade or getting the push alert that Henry Kissinger died.

18:29 Inject that straight into my veins until I happily die.

18:33 But not about taking a drug that's

18:36 readily available at gas station convenience stores.

18:39 In working on this story, we've seen so many clips of people talking

18:42 about how hard it is to quit these products.

18:44 Yet some in this industry will try

18:46 to direct people away from those examples and instead

18:49 tell them to focus on the positive like

18:51 this guy in Mississippi whose business is called Drratom.

18:54 If you Googleratom and you Google what are the downfalls,

18:57 what are the negative effects of them, that's what you're going to get is

18:59 the downfalls and the negative effects of you what

19:02 are the pros and the positive and the good points of what you're going to get.

19:06 You got to you got to learn how to Google

19:08 I mean Google nonbiasely and you'll get the truth.

19:13 Sure.

19:13 But you know, you can also say that about anything, right?

19:17 If you Google what are the good points of mountain lion attacks,

19:21 you might find some upsides to getting mowled by a mountain lion.

19:24 Though the results may also be from websites secretly made by mountain lions

19:29 and then you're really just getting the mountain lions version of the truth.

19:33 But the thing is, if you don't just rely on how you Google,

19:36 troubling patterns do begin to emerge.

19:38 When the Washington Post went through government statistics,

19:40 it found that in a recent three-year span,

19:42 medical examiners and coroners had listed as contributing to or causing

19:46 at least 4,100 deaths in 44 states and DC.

19:49 Now, to be fair, most cases did involve other substances.

19:53 Butratum was listed as the sole substance causing death in 182 of those cases.

19:58 And there is every chance that that is an undercount given these substances

20:02 are new enough that death investigations don't

20:04 always test for or detectratum or 70.

20:07 The fact is despite how ubiquitous these products are,

20:11 they really haven't been tested properly for safety as the former

20:16 number one Acura salesman in the country readily admits.

20:20 So 70 hasn't had any like human

20:23 trials like for regulations or anything like that.

20:25 That is correct.

20:26 Yeah.

20:26 I mean the the human trials have been people choosing to use it.

20:30 Look look I I hate to second guess that man.

20:34 I'm afraid of the impact it would have on the global economy.

20:36 But that's not how human trials work.

20:40 That's just selling people then seeing what happens.

20:43 And what happened in his case is that the Missouri AG

20:46 has sued his company for deceptively marketing 70 and as safe products.

20:51 Incidentally, during that investigation,

20:53 it was noted his company had recalled more

20:55 than 3 million pills after a bottle of tablets

20:58 that were marketed as containing 7 and a half

21:01 milligs of 70 turned out to contain around 34 milligrams,

21:05 over four times as much.

21:07 And while apparently, I have to tell you,

21:09 the company insists it makes substantial efforts

21:12 to ensure its products are safe and reliable,

21:14 and that this appears to have been an isolated outlier.

21:17 First, I think we might disagree on what the word substantial means.

21:21 And that statement appears much less reassuring to me

21:24 than I think they want it to sound.

21:27 It's basically given 34 millig is more than

21:30 double the maximum recommended dosage on the package.

21:33 And double the maximum dosage is one of the more alarming reasons for a recall.

21:38 It's right up there with it's actually

21:39 horse meat and sometimes it just explodes.

21:43 Oh Oh Another one's gone.

21:45 Oh, you know what?

21:46 I'm sure it's fine.

21:47 Elon's a genius.

21:49 Now, I should say some states are taking action.

21:53 For example, as of January, all of these had some form of regulation on 70

21:57 or ranging from age restrictions and labeling requirements to outright bans.

22:02 But I admit this is complicated because first,

22:06 as we've talked about multiple times before on this show,

22:09 in general, full-on prohibition and criminalization

22:12 just isn't great drug policy.

22:14 And second, when it comes to this particular industry,

22:16 whenever one drug is banned, another can quickly take its place.

22:20 All of which brings us to our final type of gas station drug, TNT.

22:24 Remember that guy you saw earlier with the big pile of bottles?

22:28 Those weren't.

22:29 He'd already kicked an addiction to that after his state banned it,

22:33 only for him to then get hooked on TNT.

22:36 It's actually sold as a pharmaceutical in Europe as an anti-depressant,

22:39 but has not been approved by the FDA for any medical use here.

22:43 Instead, it's been marketed as a neutropic or cognitive

22:46 enhancer in products like Neptune's Fix, Zazar, and Tiana.

22:49 And I will say it is not a great sign.

22:52 The Taeptine quickly picked up this catchy nickname.

22:56 You can find it online at convenience stores, even gas stations.

23:00 But experts are sounding the alarm,

23:02 calling what's in these bottles and pills, gas station heroin.

23:06 Yeah, gas station heroin.

23:08 And I know on its face that sounds like

23:11 the title of a pretty good Lana Del Rey song,

23:13 but it's also a real nickname for a widely available drug that can

23:17 be incredibly dangerous because TNT's been

23:19 linked to hundreds of reports of harm, including overdoses and deaths.

23:24 Alabama actually banned it a few years ago, but in true whack-a-ole style.

23:28 A similar product called Frenzy quickly replaced it on shelves with at least

23:32 one store there even labeling it as from the maker of Tiana.

23:36 And even when states pass laws,

23:38 the truth is they don't always get well enforced.

23:40 Meaning that TNT still wound up sitting on shelves for people to buy.

23:44 And that has led to some tragic outcomes like

23:47 this story from a few years ago in Ohio.

23:49 It was at this Midwestern gas station

23:52 that Chris Hagerty bought a bottle of Neptune's

23:54 fix even though the product contained TNT banned

23:58 a year earlier by the state of Ohio.

24:01 I miss him dearly.

24:04 In an interview with the IT team almost four months ago,

24:06 Hagert's mother build gas station heroin as death in a bottle.

24:11 $15 a bottle.

24:13 How many people bought it besides my son?

24:16 It was for sale at the gas station just

24:20 right next to the lottery tickets and the cigarettes.

24:24 Yeah, that is terrible.

24:25 And it is hard to believe that something so immediately dangerous

24:29 could be sold at the gas station next to lottery tickets.

24:32 It'd be like finding out that PetSmart sells hand grenades next to the hamsters.

24:36 Come on, PetSmart.

24:38 You know, everyone always swings by the hamsters.

24:41 You're getting people at their weakest point.

24:44 And frustratingly, behind closed doors, some in this industry seem well aware

24:49 that the products they're selling can be dangerous.

24:50 The reason that I know that is that one of our producers

24:53 actually went to a trade show like the one you saw earlier.

24:55 And to answer your first question, yeah,

24:57 of course she saw a cratom themed Cyber Truck in the parking lot.

25:00 Of course she saw that.

25:02 You could practically hear the limp biscuit music wafting out of it.

25:07 The whole convention was honestly a pretty good glimpse

25:10 into an industry clearly already planning for what comes next.

25:13 A lot of vendors seemed ready for 70 to be

25:16 banned as they were already marketing newer products like this one

25:18 whose marketing material said the future of compliant in allratum legal

25:23 states 7 hydroxy replacement three to four times stronger than 70.

25:28 She also spoke to a rep from a distribution

25:30 company that sells boner pills who got surprisingly

25:32 honest about the fact that while some of their products

25:35 are kind of others could be actively dangerous.

25:38 Take a listen.

25:39 These are the gas station stuff.

25:42 Okay.

25:41 It's cheap.

25:42 It doesn't work.

25:43 Black ones are dangerous though.

25:45 How so?

25:46 Yeah, they are they are so potent.

25:47 So, this is 200 mg.

25:49 I would not advise selling these to people more than 50 years old.

25:53 Oh, okay.

25:53 Okay.

25:54 These ones are safe.

25:56 Wow.

25:56 I wouldn't advise selling these to people over 50.

26:00 That is a reasonable thing to say if

26:02 you're selling tickets to an Olivia Rodrigo concert,

26:05 but not when you're talking about your company's unregulated dick pills.

26:08 And it does feel like don't consume if you're over 50

26:12 is the kind of thing that shouldn't be whispered at trade shows,

26:14 but slapped in massive lettering on your packaging.

26:17 This is a photo of that man's table.

26:20 And these are some of the pills that he told us were super potent.

26:23 They're called Mr.

26:24 bull tablets and their tagline is do it like pro.

26:27 So we actually ordered some and sent them to this lab to be

26:31 analyzed and they found that when that guy said the pills were super potent,

26:35 he wasn't lying cuz each contained 180 milligrams of dopoxitine,

26:39 that's 3 to six times the prescription dose of a drug

26:42 for premature ejaculation that's not been approved for use here in the US.

26:46 And they contained 270 milligrams of Seletaphil,

26:50 the active ingredient in Viagra.

26:51 That's nearly three times the maximum prescription dose.

26:55 That is a lot.

26:57 And worryingly, none of those ingredients were listed on the package,

27:00 which instead claimed it's an all naturatural

27:02 herbal supplement containing stuff like cinnamon bark, licorice, and deer root.

27:08 All of which just sounds like the ingredients on sleepy time tea.

27:12 And there is a reason that the sleepy

27:14 bear isn't rocking a massive hardon on that package.

27:18 So, what do we do?

27:21 Well, first, take care of it.

27:22 But also, RFK and his FDA director have actually

27:27 been talking about the dangers of some of these products, which I guess is good.

27:32 I do worry RFK is either going to say they cause

27:34 autism or suggest they somehow be replaced with groundup raccoon carcass.

27:38 But still, it's something.

27:40 Now, unfortunately though, any good moves that they take are likely to be

27:44 undermined by the fact that they've gutted the FDA,

27:46 which even before they came along wasn't exactly well staffed.

27:49 Meanwhile, some states are taking a more proactive approach.

27:52 Missou's AG, for instance,

27:53 has launched an investigation into major crater manufacturers

27:56 and retailers for potentially dangerous and illegal practices.

27:58 That is how they came to be suing this guy.

28:01 Although it shows how slippery this industry is

28:04 that he said that if 70 is banned,

28:07 his company already has another product ready to replace it.

28:10 Look, something clearly has to be done with this industry.

28:14 The key thing is to do it very carefully

28:17 because in the case of products containing 70 and TNT,

28:21 a lot of people have now become dependent on them.

28:23 And one thing I want to be absolutely clear about is

28:26 if states are going to start banning some of these drugs,

28:29 that should only happen alongside a plan

28:31 to help people who cannot suddenly stop using them,

28:34 whether it's because they're using them

28:36 to treat pain or because they've become addicted.

28:39 Because if we learned one thing from the opioid crisis is

28:43 that every family fortune is built on the blood of strangers.

28:45 But if we learned two things is that when

28:48 you take something very strong off the market,

28:51 not everyone can just quit cold turkey.

28:54 So there has to be a harm reduction plan to go alongside any potential ban.

28:58 And I know there are plenty of substances

29:00 out there that are addictive or dangerous.

29:03 Alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs.

29:05 But with those things,

29:06 we've tried over the years and not always perfectly to match

29:10 the level of regulation around them to the level of risks they present

29:14 to make sure that at the very least you know what you're

29:16 getting and what risks you're taking when you choose to consume them.

29:20 What we haven't done though is let it be a total freeforall where companies can

29:24 just sell whatever they want to anyone who

29:26 wants it and lie about what it contains.

29:29 And unfortunately, right now, it's become incumbent upon all of us

29:32 to make ourselves aware of the potential dangers here.

29:35 Because these products can be much more addictive than you think,

29:38 more powerful than you may even want them to be,

29:40 and contain things you did not sign up for.

29:43 So, if I may quote Joe Rogan, something I really don't love to do.

29:48 It's crucial to know that this stuff could, in his words, you up.

29:53 But unlike Joe Rogan, it's just as crucial to not then swallow 10 of them.

29:59 Because while gas station drugs may look fun and low risk,

30:02 especially when they're sold in familiar environments,

30:04 the truth is you could easily wind up addicted

30:07 and losing tens of Honda Civics's worth of money to them,

30:11 or indeed far, far worse.