IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Hidetada Yamagishi was arrested for felony possession of a controlled substance at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) after arriving from Narita Airport (Tokyo) on December 8, 2007. Hide recently spent five weeks in his home country of Japan. He is currently being held at the North County Correctional Facility in Saugus, California on $180,000 bond. He will have a court date on January 8, 2008 at Los Angeles Municipal Court.
Contrary to what has been reported elsewhere, he is unlikely to post bail. Since U.S. authorities have placed an immigration hold on Hidetada Yamagishi, if he does post bail, he will immediately be taken into federal custody until the conclusion of his legal proceeding. Hide will then be turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and placed in deportation proceedings.
This most certainly means he will not compete at the 2008 Ironman Pro Invitational or the 2008 Arnold Classic. Hidetada’s name has already been removed from the official Arnold Classic competitor’s list.
A Roger Clemens T-shirt with the question “Got Rocket Fuel?” was released about six months ago. But the phrase has taken on new meaning since the release of the Mitchell Report and the allegations of steroid use and growth hormone use were published a couple of weeks ago. The prices have been discounted on sport merchandise with names of athletes accused of steroid use:
On clearance racks of the team’s clubhouse stores and in the sale section of its Web site is a T-shirt that has taken on an unintended connotation since Roger Clemens, known as the Rocket, was linked to the use of steroids and human growth hormone. His name and No. 22 are printed on the back, and the front asks, “Got Rocket Fuel?”
Yet a search for this t-shirt on the internet indicate that it is largely sold out with the exception of a few stores.
As expected, Congress’ kneejerk reaction to the spectacle of drugs in sports is to have more hearings, introduce more legislation, spend more money enforcing additional civil and criminal penalties for sale and possession of performance-enhancing drugs.
The reliable anti-steroid warriors Sen. Charles Grassley [R, IA] and Sen. Charles Schumer [D, NY] have introduced bills to amend the Controlled Substances Act that will make growth hormone (GH) a Scheduled III Controlled Substance and add civil penalties for sale of DHEA to minors.
Major League Baseball claimed, in the Mitchell Report, that they have not issued “therapeutic use exemptions” (TUE) for growth hormone (GH). The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) describes these medical exemptions as follows:
Athletes, like all others, may have illnesses or conditions that require them to take particular medications. If the medication an athlete is required to take to treat an illness or condition happens to fall under the Prohibited List, a Therapeutic Use Exemption may give that athlete the authorization to take the needed medicine.
An athletes could be permitted to use drugs that have performance-enhancing effects if they have been issued a TUE. A positive result of a doping test would be dismissed as a result of the TUE.
It is good to know that MLB has not issued TUEs for GH; of course, growth hormone is undetectable in current sports drug testing.
However, when the Mitchell Report asked for the total number of therapeutic use exemptions granted, the Commissioner’s Office refused to answer:
I asked for the number of therapeutic use exemptions granted each year for performance enhancing substances (without identifying the players involved) because therapeutic use exemptions have been a significant loophole in some drug testing programs. The Commissioner’s Office and the Players Association declined to provide that information on the ground that it is considered confidential under the joint program.
Is it possible that several players have TUEs to use anabolic steroids without concern about drug testing?
Sixty percent of the 105 riders subject to testing were issued therapuetic use exemptions by the International Cycling Union (UCI):
We follow the WADA rules and the WADA rules allow guys to have (the certificates) for certain things… It’s not particular to cycling.
The number of TUEs issued by Major League Baseball could potentially be a huge loophole in their drug testing procedures especially since their procedures are much more lax than those of WADA (World Anti-Doping Association).
The Mitchell Report has received its fair share of commentary including my own criticisms of the report. But many are erroneously describing much of its content as hearsay, especially the “outing” on anabolic steroid users in baseball by federal informants, Kirk Radomski and Brian McNamee. For example…
Scott Boras, prominent sports agent for many pro baseball players:
It is based largely on hearsay evidence, and because of that it must be reviewed with great scrutiny
Roger Abrams, Professor of Law at Northeastern University School of Law:
The Mitchell Report has served the American public a platter filled with hearsay and innuendo that tarnishes the reputation of dozens of America’s finest athletes and the sport they play for our entertainment
Peter Lattman, lead writer for Wall Street Journal Law Blog:
Well now, the names of 89 baseballers are forever besmirched, courtesy of an extra-judicial investigation which relied on hearsay evidence (e.g., unsworn testimony of clubhouse staffers).
Unfortunately, they are incorrect with inappropriate use of the legal term “hearsay.” The testimony by Radomski and McNamee is not hearsay; it is valid evidence. Jeffrey Standen, Willamette University Professor of Law explains:
When a player asks a trainer to order him some steroids, the player’s statement is not hearsay. (It is a party admission specifically exempted from the definition of hearsay.) When a player writes a check for steroid purchases, the cleared check is not hearsay (it’s a business record, assuming a foundation could be laid, which would be easy.) When a trainer states he supplied or injected a player with drugs, it’s not hearsay (the statement is that of a co-conspirator, and thus is exempted from the definition of hearsay).
Jeffrey Lipshaw, associate professor at Suffolk University Law School, also offers a nice primer on hearsay evidence.
Is it conceivable that every Major League Baseball player could use performance-enhancing dosages of testosterone and never test positive for a banned substance? Sure, although unlikely, the information is out there. There are more than a few chemists who could figure out how to exploit a testosterone loophole in drug testing:
I could figure out how to take a fair amount of testosterone and you’d never catch me, and if I can say that, a lot of others can too.
Who said that? Patrick Arnold? Bruce Kneller? Maybe another creator of designer supplements? Actually, it was Don Catlin, the former director of UCLA’s Olympic Analytical Testing Lab and founder of the Anti-Doping Research Institute.
This statement reflects Catlin’s firsthand knowledge of loopholes for testosterone detection in existing drug testing protocols. If the sport relies exclusively on the testosterone:epitestosterone ratio (T:E ratio) test with an allowable ratio of 4:1 or 6:1, then this allows athletes to use performance-enhancing amounts of testosterone without exceeding that ratio.
Recently introduced carbon isotope ratio (CIR) test seeks to determine whether the testosterone metabolites are synthetic(plant-based) or natural (endogenous). This may not be foolproof; but has been used to corroborate elevate T:E ratios (e.g. Floyd Landis case).
However, depending on the sport, the CIR test may never be used unless an athlete fails the T:E ratio test. Furthermore, some sports don’t even use the CIR test (e.g. Major League Baseball)
In these cases, an athlete can exploit the testosterone loophole in testing.
The “cream” used by BALCO was not a novel undetectable designer steroid or sophisticated method of administering steroids. It was simply a variation of the testosterone and epitestosterone cocktail that had first been used over 20 years ago to fool drug testers.
BALCO athletes simply used a transdermal delivery system to administer the testosterone and epitestosterone mixture. Transdermal testosterone has a slower release and results in lower peak blood concentrations. This makes is easier for athletes to use the prohibited anabolic steroid testosterone and remain within the 4:1 to 6:1 acceptable T:E ratio as well as avoiding excessive absolute levels of metabolites.
Even after the entire BALCO scandal, the “testosterone loophole” has not been closed. The “cream” is just as effective as ever for a professional baseball player. And no solutions to this loophole contained within the Mitchell Report.
It’s a little bit like terrorism… There’s always going to be a certain amount there, and maybe the best we can do is try to keep it at a low level. I don’t think we’re ever going to get rid of it.
The Mitchell Report acknowledged that current steroid education programs used by Major League Baseball that focus on the dangerous side effects of anabolic steroids are generally ineffective:
[T]hese health risks… generally will not deter a player from using these substances. This is because players who use or are considering using performance enhancing substances do not consider them dangerous if used properly. This view is reinforced when players see that other players who they know are using performance enhancing substances arc not experiencing the adverse health effects described in the educational materials.
With the widespread use of steroids by baseball players and the lack of significant negative side effects, it is not surprising that scare tactics using overstated and exaggerated dangers of steroids are unsuccessful at steroid prevention in baseball.
But Senator Mitchell’s proposed solution to restore credibility to steroid education programs seems like a disaster. The Mitchell Report proposes offering “education on alternative methods to achieve the same results.”
[W]hile it is important to educate players about the dangers of performance enhancing substances, it is just as important to educate them on how to achieve the same results through proper training, nutrition, and supplements that are legal and safe.
So, all baseball players need is a creative chemist who can discover or synthesize a legal supplement [that complies with Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA)] with steroid-like effects. This legal supplement will be considered safe since newly introduced supplements are assumed to be safe under DSHEA unless proven otherwise by the FDA.
And the baseball player will have a legal and safe supplement to use.
This is the recommendation of the Mitchell Report?
But isn’t that what started the whole steroids in baseball scandal? THG redux.
It seemingly characterized some of Llewellyn’s steroid descriptions, Deca Durabolin in particular, as the view of a “steroid abuser(s).” He was also unfairly and inaccurately identified by Senator George Mitchell as an advocate of “illegal steroid use by athletes.”
His 1000+ page steroid reference guide was dismissed as “targeted at steroid abusers.” Bill’s Anabolics 2007 was cited four times in the Mitchell Report in similar contexts.
Clearly, Senator Mitchell doesn’t believe there is a distinction between steroid users and steroid abusers - all steroid use is abuse. And apparently, anyone who writes (non-judgmentally) about steroid use by athletes is also considered a steroid abuser.
The Mitchell Report on the use of anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs by Major League Baseball players was released to the public today. What a monumental waste of literally millions of dollars and no doubt thousands of hours as the overwhelming majority of information was obtained from the public domain; part-time clerk George Godfrey did a better job documenting steroid use in baseball and did it for free at Baseball’s Steroid Era.
Of course, the big supposed “news” released in the report was expanded testimony by Kirk Radomski and Brian McNamee. Specifically, the extensive details provide by McNamee regarding alleged use of anabolic steroids and growth hormone by Roger Clemens.
The association between McNamee and Clemens along with allegations of steroid use by the latter was widely known for some time. Yawn.
After all, Clemens fired McNamee earlier this year and certainly there was no coincidence. Interestingly, the media and public has always been more than willing to believe the popular, well-mannered, All-American Roger Clemens achieved his amazing late-career success and performance without the use of performance-enhancing drugs. The only speculation in the blogosphere was whether or not the Mitchell Report would give Clemens “clemency” in the matter. After all, he is a nice and friendly guy in direct contast to the “asshole” of a steroid villain, Barry Bonds who the media/public condemned as a definite steroid-user in all of two seconds.
