Drug info - Cocaine: Good for TASER Victims?

[klaatu]

(From the investing section of The Motley Fool - Klaatu)

www.fool.com

Cocaine: Good for TASER Victims?

May 22, 2006

I swear that I'm not making this up. TASER's (Nasdaq: TASR) PR department sent me this on Friday:

TASER International, Inc. ... announced today that ... a standard electrical discharge from a TASER brand device does not induce ventricular fibrillation, and that cocaine intoxication increases the safety margin even further.

In other words, if you snort the white powdery stuff before you get shocked, you're even less likely to die of a heart attack. How reassuring.

The science behind the claim comes from a study conducted by the Cleveland Clinic and sponsored by TASER, in which pigs were given high doses of cocaine prior to receiving TASER shocks. The so-called flying pigs were apparently able to withstand eight times the normal TASER discharge.

Frankly, I'm stunned that TASER sees the need to issue such a press release. Either the company has sunk to a new low in PR strategy, or perception on the street (and the Street) about the TASER devices really is that bad.

Perhaps it's both. TASER has suffered from numerous outlandish claims in years past, such as a USA Today story that claimed its stun guns delivered shocks equal to that of an electric chair. But should such preposterous stories give TASER free license to breach the borders of reasonable PR, as I think this press release does? Not in my book.

-----------------

Klaatu