It aint snake oil, ive used the pain relief cream on my neck and it works very well...and biofreeze and icy hot cant touch it. Im bout to order me a bigger jug of it. I know alot of people use the crap out of it but it does work..i dont know about the gas station stuff..my wife is a massage therapist and she can order it through her massage catalogs. I highly reccomend trying some of the cream for joint pain and muscle soreness. Stuff is expensive tho..very expensive. It also does contain small amounts of thc and ive read stories about it building up in peoples system and they fail a drug test...but they were smokin it and eatin it...ALOT