Two of the principals behind the underground lab Pacific Rim Labs (PRL) have pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to the manufacturing and distribution of anabolic steroids. Jimmy Ray Jones aka “Jimbo” and Dana Fiscus of Missoula, Montana both pleaded guilty to several counts including conspiracy to “manufacture, possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute anabolic steroids,” “unlawfully importing anabolic steroids” from China, and money laundering. The underground steroid lab did business under a variety of names including Pacific Rim Labs, Big Sky Sports Supplements and Ebay Solutions.
The senior citizen Jones was allegedly the owner of Pacific Rim Labs. Jones’ stepson, Dana Fiscus was in charge of internet sales of steroids, purchasing raw materials from China, and collecting payments from customers via Western Union and Moneygram wires and via mail at a private mail box purchased in his name on Reserve Street in Missoula, MT. Fiscus is married to a police officer in the Missoula Police Department.
The pair were busted after an internet distributor of Pacific Rim Labs in Wisconsin, Kyle Bredl, was arrested for selling $10,000 worth of anabolic steroids including methandrostenolone, stanozolol and oxymetholone to an undercover police officer. A joint steroid investigation between the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Missoula High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force (HIDTA) resulted in their arrests and indictments.
Ron Nelson Brady, Jr. is accused of attempting to hire an undercover police detective posing as a hitman to kill three witnesses testifying against Pro Bodybuilder Craig Titus. Brady was described in court as a bizarrely obsessed fan of professoinal bodybuilder Craig Titus; muscle hero worship was cited as the motive behind his participation in the assassination plot that prosecution witnesses in the Titus-Ryan murder trial.
Craig Titus and wife IFBB Pro Fitness competitor Kelly Ryan were charged with murder, third degree arson and attempting to avoid prosecution in the homicide of Melissa James. The bodybuilding couple has been incarcerated since their arrest in December 2005. Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan are set to go to trial on June 2, 2008.
IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Art Atwood was approached by the Dallas/Fort Worth CBS affiliate and asked about his involvement in a federal steroid investigation. Atwood was asked about potential steroid charges that he may face, concern about jail, and his association with David Jacobs who has agreed to a plea bargain in the steroid investigation.
University of Mississippi quarterback recruit, Jared Foster, was arrested for selling anabolic steroids by Madison County Sheriff’s Department Narcotics Division. Foster had been attending classes and informally working out with the Ole Miss football team. In light of the steroid arrest, the University of Mississippi has kicked Foster off the team and has withdrawn his full college scholarship to play football at Ole Miss.
Two years ago, when Foster was a senior in high school, police discovered anabolic steroids in his home. He was arrested on underage drinking charges. The underage drinking charges were dropped and no steroid possession charges were ever filed because Foster agreed to cooperate with local authorities in a joint steroid investigation by the Madison Police Department and the Madison County Sheriff’s Department.
Foster is being detained at the Madison County Detention Center on the steroid-related charges.
The co-owner of Lowen’s Pharmacy has apparently died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head; New York Police Department (NYPD) investigators maintain it was a suicide even though the victim was also shot in the chest.
Six NYPD police officers, most of whom worked out at Dolphin Fitness near Lowen’s, have been under instensive internal affairs investigations for improperly obtaining anabolic steroids from Lowen’s Pharmacy. Lowen’s Pharmacy has been raided on two separate occasions by narcotics officers working with the office of New York’s Albany District Attorney David Soares. These raids resulted in the seizure of over $7 million worth of growth hormone from China as well as $200,000 worth of various anabolic steroids, including testosterone, nandrolone and stanozolol; records seized showed that about $30 million in steroids and growth hormone were funneled through “longevity clinics” in Florida.
Lowen’s Pharmacy has ties to the Gambino crime family. Julius Nasso, Jr. is a part owner of Lowen’s Pharmacy; his father owns the building where Lowen’s is located at the corner of Bayshore Drive and 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn. The father of Julius Nasso, Jr. was a former pharmacist turned movie producer who served prison time for conspiring with the Gambino family to extort money from actor Steven Segal; the uncle of Nasso, Jr. owns a drug company and was sentenced for labor racketeering.
The San Diego Union-Tribune published a very interesting article about the side effects that occur when anabolic steroids are discontinued at the end of a cycle. The writer, Mark Zeigler, is of course talking about the anabolic steroid induced hypogonadism (ASIH) that occurs when endogenous production of testosterone is suppressed.
Bodybuilders who use anabolic steroids are very familiar with this problem; it is widely recognized and widely discussed in the bodybuilding community. Various doctors, writers and bodybuilders have offered possible solutions. It is accepted within many bodybuilding circles that ASIH can be largely minimized if not completely avoided.
But nowhere in the article is their any suggestion that the ASIH can be avoided or treated. It is not necessarily the fault of the author; the medical profession does not recognize the treatment of ASIH; the government does not recognize treatment of ASIH. Consequently they do not approve of treatment for the side effects related to the cessation of anabolic steroids.
This just baffles me! Why would the side effects that come along with stopping steroid use, especially if they are as dangerous as claimed, be left untreated especially if that treatment is readily available? I mean it is no secret that Taylor Hooton’s parents and doctors took him off of anabolic steroids and within 6 weeks he committed suicide. Texas has passed legislation claiming “clinical depression [occurs] when steroid use is stopped.” Kirk Brower, M.D. has told Congress during the baseball hearings that “depressive episodes and suicide attempts are most likely to occur within three months of stopping AAS use.”
If there is a treatment to prevent or eliminate the side effects associated with cessation of anabolic steroids, it should be promoted and encouraged by the government and medical community. But why isn’t it?
(1) The steroid prohibition movement is about morality and not about health. To paraphrase Radley Balko, it is better to let a steroid user suffer (and even die) rather than administer a medical treatment that could eliminate steroid side effects and remove threat of suicide. The war against steroids has taken on the characteristics of the overarching war on drugs. Balko explains the drug policy:
This is the mentality of your modern drug warrior. We’re fighting drug use not because it’s dangerous or harmful, but because they believe drug use is, in and of itself, immoral.
Today’s drug war isn’t about saving lives, it’s about saving souls.
(2) If the side effects of steroids are successfully treated, it would encourage steroid users to continue using steroids. This is probably correct, but is that a worse outcome than making steroid users suffer for making a supposedly immoral choice? The Office Of National Drug Control Policy has a strong moral philosophy and opposition to harm reduction when it comes to drug use.
These so-called “harm reduction” strategies are poor public policy because their underlying philosophy involves giving up on those who can successfully recover from drug addiction.
Let’s abandon this morality play and truly focus on the health consequences of anabolic steroid use.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone were competitive rivals as box office muscle action heroes during the 1980s. But now Arnold and Sly are apparently good friends. According to Stallone, their friendship has flourished recently:
After he became governor, we started to build this relationship. We’d go to this place called Cafe Rome and smoke cigars, then they banned smoking, so the governor and I were in an alley stealing a few puffs talking about how to balance the budget. Now we meet every Saturday.
Schwarzenegger is even a fan of Sly’s movies nowadays. Arnold took his two sons on a flight to Las Vegas Los Angeles last week for the box office premiere of Sylvester Stallone’s latest movie, Rambo.
I’m certain that Arnold’s friendship with Sly will be criticized since Stallone has become the most high profile celebrity advocate for the use of growth hormone and testosterone in age management medicine during his recent promotional tour for Rambo.
Arnold has long faced criticism of his association with pro bodybuilding via the Arnold Classic because of the rampant anabolic steroid use in the sport. It’s good to hear Arnold is not turning his back on friends and the sport of bodybuilding simply due to political pressure!
Allan Donnelly of Flex Magazine reports that IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Hidetada Yamagishi’s preliminary court date on steroid possession and steroid distribution charges has been rescheduled to February 6, 2008. Hide was said to have “missed” the bus transporting him to his originally scheduled hearing on January 23, 2008; when he did arrive, Los Angelese Superior Court was unable to provide a court-appointed Japanese translator. So, the judge rescheduled the hearing two weeks later. Meanwhile, Hidetada returns to jail to continue to wait for his day in court.
It seems to be that it was the State’s responsible to deliver Hide to court on time and, when that was not possible, at least be able to provide a Japanese translator. Rescheduling the court date to almost two weeks later due to State incompetence doesn’t seem very fair to Hide.
There have been unsubstantiated rumors of a steroid bust involving Art Atwood for several months. David Jacobs, known by bodybuilding fans as Branch Warren’s training partner, was rumored to be a steroid dealer turned police informant who sold 100 vials of counterfeit steroids to Art Atwood in early May 2007. However, court documents revealed that Art Atwood was never arrested, charged or convicted of any type of anabolic steroid possession, steroid distribution or steroid conspiracy charge(s). Technically, Art Atwood was never “busted” for buying/selling steroids.
Today, the New York Times confirmed that IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Art Atwood bought 100 vials of counterfeit anabolic steroids from an unnamed police informant back on May 7, 2007. Atwood was arrested moments later, not on a steroids violation, but for a minor traffic violation. Clearly, police could have arrested and charged Art Atwood on a felony steroid possession or distribution charge, but they did not. We now know why…
Three days later on May 10, 2007, a grand jury indicted David Jacobs on three counts of “conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute anabolic steroids” and and one count of “unlawful user of a controlled substance in possession of a firearm.”
In November 2007, it was publicly revealed that David Jacobs would only receive probation as part of a plea agreement; in exchange, he told the media he would fully cooperate with federal authorities and release the names of professional athletes to which he sold anabolic steroids.
Today, the New York Times revealed that Art Atwood also made a deal with Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Cantrell in which he would completely avoid jail time; in exchange the feds have his full cooperation. The feds enlisted both Art Atwood and David Jacobs to help them with Operation Raw Deal. But the New York Times was unable to uncover the final target of the multi-state investigation.
It is unclear whether or not Art Atwood will ever be charged with a crime. But Art Atwood and David Jacobs are still cooperating in an ongoing federal investigation meaning customers who bought anabolic steroids from them could still face criminal prosecution.
The New York Times articles provides an interesting insight into “steroid prosecution methods and goals.”
Catching high school athletes who used anabolic steroids was apparently never the primary goal of the Texas steroid testing program. According to a published report, state legislators say the main goal of the $3 million per year investment was to serve as a strong deterrent.
Linn Goldberg, a national drug-testing expert and the head of the division of health promotion and sports medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, said “drug testing, as yet, is not a deterrent to use. There’s no evidence that it is.”
He called the Texas steroids program “a knee-jerk reflex so they can say they’re doing something.”
His Oregon Health and Science University research team recently completed a study that arrived at these conclusions. (See Goldberg, L., et al. (2007) Outcomes of a Prospective Trial of Student-Athlete Drug Testing: The Student Athlete Testing Using Random Notification (SATURN) Study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 41(5):421-429.)
Goldberg has been an outspoken opponent of steroid testing for some time now and has mounted a campaign against steroid testing in schools:
The big thing that people say is you got to give kids a reason not to use drugs, and drug testing is a reason… That’s not what we found. You can look at testing as a way to catch an early addiction, but as a deterrent, which this study was looking at, we didn’t find any evidence that testing was a deterrent.
Diane Elliot, M.D., co-investigator and doping control officer with United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) backs up Goldberg and takes direct aim at the trendy high school steroid testing programs:
This was a state-of-the-art collection and testing program that exceeded those of typical school testing programs. If this did not show significant deterrent effects, less-sophisticated programs are not likely to be more successful.
Linn Goldberg explains to the New York Times that steroid testing doesn’t work as a deterrent because so many people test positive:
If drug testing was so great, if it was so wonderful, we wouldn’t have anybody test positive… People would be scared of testing positive and being thrown out; you have a lot of people who test positive.
Linn Goldberg, in same New York Times interview, explains that steroid testing doesn’t work when no one tests positive either:
They had a ton of drug users; they’re just not catching them. They’re happy as can be that they think they’ve got just a wonderful program. In reality, kids are using just as many drugs and the administrators are walking around in their dream world.
So, if steroid testing catches a lot of high school steroid users, it is not an effective deterrent. And if it catches few steroids users, it is still not an effective deterrent. According to Goldberg, steroid testing does not work regardless of the outcome.
What really bothers Linn Goldberg is that if all the federal and state funds are squandered on steroid testing, then there won’t be any money left to fund steroid education programs (like maybe his ATLAS and ATHENA steroid education programs that have been the primary beneficiary of federal funds earmarked for ’steroid education’ after the passage of the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004!)
Here’s what I see is the big problem: If you put in drug testing and you think it works, then you’re not going to put anything else in. You’re not going to care about anything else because you probably feel, ‘We’ve taken care of it.’
The truth comes out. Things are not always what they seem. Linn Goldberg has a clear conflict of interest since federal and state funds for “steroid education” and “steroid testing” are limited and tend to compete against each other.
I don’t understand why journalists are not more critical of Dr. Goldberg, his conflict of interest, the appearance of bias, and history of pandering for federals funds for his “steroid education” programs.
I tend to agree with Linn Goldberg’s assessment of state steroid testing programs. But I am also critical of steroid education programs too.
The New York Times wonders if the “focus on testing at the high school level is a deterrent or a burgeoning cottage industry.” The NY Times then concludes we should just give money to everyone and hope something works:
What the study makes clear is that there is a need for education and detection. This is not an either/or proposition.
