Consumer Protection Unit Probes Mail-Order Firm Selling Diet Pills

A mail-order business marketing a Japanese “super pill” that purportedly flushes calories from the body is under investigation by the district attorney’s consumer protection unit.

Charles Kelson, the unit’s supervising investigator, said that, since January, the company, whose orders are processed by a Canoga Park firm, has placed 806 ads in 268 newspapers and periodicals throughout the country. He said the ads guarantee that the pills, Amitol/AM, will produce rapid weight loss without dieting.

The company has mailed about 40,000 bottles a month of the product to customers since the first of the year, Kelson said. At $19.95 for a 30-day supply and $35.95 for a 60-day supply, he said, the company grosses about $800,000 a month. He said the diet-pill company buys the product from a supplier for about $1.68 for a bottle of 30 pills. Kelson said he does not believe the supplier, which he would not identify, is involved in the product’s marketing.

Harmless Substance

Medical experts who have analyzed the product report that it is made of glucomannan, a harmless, fibrous substance obtained from the root of konjac, a plant that grows in northern Japan, Kelson said.

Glucomannan, available in most health product stores, “is worthless in the control of obesity,” said Dr. Ernst J. Drenick of the UCLA School of Medicine, an expert in the treatment of obesity. Amitol/AM contains a non-absorbent fiber product and a binding material, Drenick said.

Kelson said that before and after pictures of a woman who claims to have lost 51 pounds in six weeks, down to a weight of 118, are included in the ad. Drenick said that it would be impossible for a 169-pound woman to achieve such a drastic weight loss in so little time, as the ad claims.

Kelson said Stephanie Brennan, the woman pictured in the ads, actually is president of Continental Health Industries, whose Dyna Labs Division markets Amitol/AM. Brennan could not be reached for comment Thursday. Kelson said the ads appear to be designed solely “to attract gullible buyers.”

Distributor Raided

Earlier this week, investigators with a search warrant raided the company’s Canoga Park distributor, Pacific Order Processing Inc. on Deering Avenue, to gather evidence for a possible legal action against Dyna Labs. Besides samples of the product, Kelson said, investigators seized hundreds of packages containing pills that had been returned by the public.

“They apparently do make refunds,” Kelson said.

Brennan’s company has no actual location, Kelson said, but claims Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Las Vegas and Ogden, Utah, as among the cities where it is headquartered. However, these addresses are only mail drops, Kelson said. Orders sent to any address listed in the ads are forwarded to the Canoga Park processing firm, he said.