Over 5,300 bottles of baijiu were seized by investigators in Liuzhou, Guangxi after it was found that distillers had been adding Viagra to thousands of bottles of booze, telling customers that it had "health-preserving qualities".
Police found packets of a white powder called Sildenafil, better known as the impotence medication Viagra, at two distillers in the city. The Guikun Alcohol Plant and Deshun Alcohol Plant are now under investigation, according to SCMP, which already beat us to the "stiff drink" joke.
The Liuzhou Food and Drug Administration said that the substance had been added to three different types of baijiu. All together, police confiscated up to 700,000 yuan in suspected Viagra-tainted goods.
Sales of the little blue pill in China rocketed by an impressive 47 percent last year, a surge attributed to drug company Pfizer's hard-pushed educational campaign about erectile dysfunction in the country.
According to Ma Xiaonian, a clinical sexologist and deputy director of the China Sexology Association, a change in lifestyle in recent decades has also affected sales.
Chinese nowadays "sit more, move less, exercise less, and have more bad habits. And all these affect sexual abilities," Ma said.
Doctors recommend that those with a prescription only take one dose of Viagra a day, even less if the user is over the age of 65. The medication has also been deemed unsafe for men with cardiovascular problems and is banned as a food additive in China.
Last year, a businessman in Hubei province was arrested for sprinkling Viagra in over 1,000 bottles of alcohol in a scheme to "increase liquor sales and make money fast"
