Last week, there was a widely reported series of raids on the Hells Angels in Ontario, B.C. and New Brunswick.
It was part of a massive police anti-gang crackdown, and netted the arrest of 18 full members of the motorcycle gang and a couple of police vans full of loot.
Of course there was the usual stuff -- guns, stolen cars, cocaine -- the kind of things any self-respecting biker would happily go to jail for.
Then there was something else that caught my eye among the haul of police evidence -- they seized hundreds of tablets of Viagra.
Now don't get me wrong.
I don't have anything against Viagra or the good people at Pfizer.
I'm sure it's a wonderful product and the massive profits from it are funding research into minor annoyances like cancer and not just the next high volume, low cost, lifestyle drug.
In the short nine years since it was approved, Viagra has generated billions of junk e-mails and become such a part of modern life that last month it was reported Chinese cemeteries are now selling paper Viagra pills to burn at the gravesides of the dearly departed to help improve the sex lives of the deceased in the hereafter.
So I suppose it's no wonder that bootleg Viagra is also now turning a tidy profit for organized crime.
Personally, I've never been keen on the idea of buying prescription medications from a guy in a bar with tattoos on his face, but I suppose there wouldn't be a supply if there wasn't a market for it.
To be honest, the whole Hells Angels-Viagra thing made me think about the fact that the both the Hells Angels and their customers are starting to get a little long in the tooth.
They were infamous for doing the security for the Rolling Stones in 1969, and the 38 years in between haven't been kind to either of them.
If they did that now, they would spend most of their time trying to keep the same fans from throwing their Depends and botox onto the stage during the "Steel Wheelchairs Tour."
Of course the Hells Angels are looking a little older too. At their court appearance following the bust several were described as "grey-haired" and others complained of "medical issues" while in custody.
Many of them are apparently pushing 60 years old, which isn't that old by any normal standard, but isn't how most of us picture a leather-clad biker.
I can see how aging customers of the drug trade would require a change to their core business.
Instead of selling dope, coke, hash and other things that make you stupider than you already are, an aging population would have other illicit interests.
Who could turn down a great deal on a case of Metamucil that "fell off the back of a truck," or cut-rate ointment for muscle spasms?
Then there's a whole new black market in arthritis pills, heating pads and Dr. Scholl's shoe inserts, all supplied in some dark and seedy bar, no questions asked.
At one time they supplied Canada with strippers and good-time girls.
Now, there's a whole lot more money in smuggling registered physiotherapists over the Quebec border to look after a generation of aging Boomers.
I fear the sale of bootleg Viagra is just the beginning for aging bikers and their clients.
But more amazing is the fact that the story has been told without anyone so far referring to them as "hardened criminals
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels]
14th April 2007 08:23 PM
MrPleasant
Bikers?
14th April 2007 08:35 PM
fireontheplatter
mushroom tea anyone...afterall it is saturday night?
14th April 2007 10:02 PM
pdog
black market pharma's ain't nothing new. it's a huge market with organized crime... Especially stuff from Canada...
14th April 2007 10:45 PM
mojoman
dudes are old..........
15th April 2007 10:18 AM
Ten Thousand Motels
quote:mojoman wrote:
dudes are old..........
And spent. But where are the under 30 members of the Hell's Angels. Don't the Angels reproduce?
15th April 2007 10:43 AM
mojoman
quote:Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
And spent. But where are the under 30 members of the Hell's Angels. Don't the Angels reproduce?
at starbucks or ballys
15th April 2007 11:29 AM
gimmekeef
As Sonny Barger would say.."They got got"....Wonder what happened to that stoned out biker at Altamont in the fox like hat contraption?
15th April 2007 02:19 PM
mojoman
quote:gimmekeef wrote:
As Sonny Barger would say.."They got got"....Wonder what happened to that stoned out biker at Altamont in the fox like hat contraption?
whatever happened to that 300lb naked guy and 200lb naked chick?
15th April 2007 05:17 PM
gimmekeef
quote:mojoman wrote:
whatever happened to that 300lb naked guy and 200lb naked chick?
Now 450lbs and 350lbs respectively......working at Taco Bell in Omaha
Search for information in the wet page, the archives and this board:
The Rolling Stones World Tour 2005 Rolling Stones Bigger Bang Tour 2005 2006 Rolling Stones Forum - Rolling Stones Message Board - Mick Jagger - Keith Richards - Brian Jones - Charlie Watts - Ian Stewart - Stu - Bill Wyman - Mick Taylor - Ronnie Wood - Ron Wood - Rolling Stones 2005 Tour - Farewell Tour - Rolling Stones: Onstage World Tour A Bigger Bang US Tour
NEW: SEARCH ZONE:
Search for goods, you'll find the impossible collector's item!!!
