In February of last year, British pharmaceutical chain Boots the Chemist devised a trial plan to allow consumers a one-time opportunity to purchase Viagra, the male impotence treatment, without a prescription. Men between the ages of 30 and 65 would be able to buy a sample packet of four pills for £50 after a one-time consultation with a pharmacist, not a doctor. After the initial trial, a doctor’s consultation would be required to continue the dosage.

Pfizer, Inc.’s worldwide patent on the drug expires in 2011 – though Viagra has several competitors, and dozens, if not hundreds of falsely-advertised scam ‘herbal’ imitations, none of them are sildenafil citrate. When the patent expires, it seems likely that other drug companies will try to break into the market with their own sildenafil imprints. But a prescription will likely be needed to buy these drugs, too.

A report last year indicated that Pfizer had no intention of selling Viagra over-the-counter. It would be difficult for Pfizer, or any company with a similar drug, to acquire approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Viagra can interfere with some heart medications, like nitrate-containing drugs taken for chest pain. It can also kill: erectile dysfunction may be a symptom of a more serious cardiovascular issue, and sex, which the body is preventing itself from performing through impotence, may exacerbate existing conditions into fatality.

Viagra and drugs like it assist the nervous system by helping to elevate the levels of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), a chemical messenger that signals the muscles in the corpus cavernosum of the penis to relax, resulting in an erection. Viagra tablets simply blocks (or inhibits) a chemical that degrades cGMP in the penis, thus allowing erections to last longer. The drug does not work, however, unless the user is already aroused, so blame for spontaneous erections cannot be laid at the feet of the blue pill.

Although a new study from the Montreal Heart Institute has shown that sildenafil citrate can prevent damage from a high-risk form of muscular dystrophy, Pfizer already sells a smaller-dosage version (20 mg rather than 50 mg) for hypertension treatment. There are a few dangers and side effects that would prevent Viagra, or Viagra-like substances, from entering the market without regulation. Among known side effects of Viagra are cyanopsia (everything in one’s field of vision seems blue), sudden, temporary loss of sight, and priapism – that is, painful erections that last for four hours or more.

It is important to remember that Viagra is not an aphrodisiac, a recreational usage that seems to be on the rise as the drug finds greater purchase in the crannies of the black market. For healthy persons with no erectile dysfunction, a dose of Viagra does essentially nothing, but when taken in combination with amyl nitrate inhalants, or poppers, the drug can cause a stroke. Another popular party usage is combination with MDMA, or Ecstasy, as it is more commonly known. Do you know where to buy Viagra online cheap? Amphetamines like Ecstasy depress sexual responses in the nervous system and may result in temporary ED; users take the drug cocktail to mitigate the depressive symptoms. This, too, is dangerous, for all the reasons that Ecstasy use is dangerous: the ever-present risk of fatal seizures, although specific data on the ‘Sextasy’ drug cocktail is not yet available. Buy viagra online without prescription

It is not likely that non-prescription Viagra or its equivalent will ever exist. At present, the side effects associated with sildenafil are too dangerous to place it, unregulated, into the market as an over-the-counter drug. The risk of abuse and of accidental combination with heart medication is too high, and that is a legal tangle that Pfizer, Inc., would gladly avoid. It seems highly improbable that such an erectile-dysfunction aid would ever be available as readily as a cough drop.