June 27, 2008
Australian Customs and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) are telling the press that an Australian-born Caucasian man living in China is the steroid kingpin and mastermind behind a massive scale distribution of anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs to Olympic athletes competing in Beijing China this summer. The speculation is based on a case involving the seizure of 80kg of steroid powder (containing 40kg active ingredients) intercepted by Australian Customs at at Port Botany (Sydney).
Richard Janeczko, Australian Customs national investigations manager, makes the irresponsible and completely unsubstantiated claim that Olympic athletes were the intended recipients of these steroids even though absolutely NO link with Australian athletes has been uncovered (“Olympic doping linked to huge raid,” June 28)! Read more
June 23, 2008
George Carlin, the great stand-up comedian, died of heart failure on Sunday, June 22, 2008 in Santa Monica at the age of 71. Carlin had a problem with many aspects of American culture. But one thing he did not have a problem with was steroids in sports. He wrote about steroids in his best-selling book, When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops
It annoys me when people complain about athletes taking steroids to improve athletic performance. It’s a phony argument, because over the years every single piece of sports equipment used by athletes has been improved many times over. Golf balls and clubs; tennis balls, racquets; baseball gloves and bats; football pads and helmets and so on through every sport. Each time technology has found a way to improve equipment it has done so. So why shouldn’t a person treat his body the same way? In the context of sports, the body is nothing more than one more piece of equipment, anyway. So why not improve it with new technology? Athletes use weights, why shouldn’t they use chemicals? Read more
June 20, 2008
Scott Henson’s Grits for Breakfast, a top criminal justice and civil liberties blog, believes that side effects from anabolic steroids are relatively modest and that steroids should be legalized. He still believes that steroid use among law enforcement represents a potentially serious problem, but only because the non-medical use of anabolic steroids has been criminalized. Read more
June 20, 2008
Ironman Magazine’s Lonnie Teper, the popular bodybuilding writer, promoter and contest emcee, has denounced the use of anabolic steroids in bodybuilding competition on same day that Regis Philbin announced his support of steroids for bodybuilding. Teper’s comments were made in a recent interview with the Pasadena Weekly about the 2008 NPC Junior California Bodybuilding and Figure Championships in Pasadena, California on Saturday, June 21, 2008; Teper is the promoter of the Junior Cal show (“Show of Strength: Spartan-like bodybuilders do what it takes to attain the perfect body,” June 19). Read more
June 19, 2008
Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa had a discussion about anabolic steroids this morning on “Live with Regis and Kelly” (airing June 19, 2008 on ABC). Regis wonders why steroids are demonized because they build muscle.
Regis: Steroids have gotten a bad rap. Boy oh boy, everyone is condemning them and you are not allowed to have them…
Kelly: Well, I think if you use them illegally to build muscle and to…
Regis: What’s wrong with that? What IS WRONG with THAT?! Read more
June 19, 2008
China announced the revocation of the GeneScience Pharmaceutical license to manufacturer Jintropin brand human growth hormone. This represents a major success in efforts towards the internationalization of steroid and doping law by the United States. The U.S. federal government indicted CEO Lei Jin and GeneScience Pharmaceutical Inc. last fall as part of Operation Raw Deal (“China Cracks Down on Drug Companies,” June 19).
One of the drugmakers that China named Wednesday was GeneScience Pharmaceutical, which is based in northern China and run by an American-educated executive. Last September, a federal grand jury in Rhode Island indicted the company for illegally distributing millions of dollars in human growth hormones in the United States. The company had denied the allegation, but its American agent pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to distribute H.G.H.
June 19, 2008
The core bodybuilding community is failing to support the critically acclaimed steroid documentary “Bigger Stronger Faster*” at the box office. Bodybuilders have the most to gain by the commercial success of a movie that presents the audience with factual information challenging uninformed beliefs about the alleged dangers of anabolic steroids; such a brilliant documentary has the potential to change attitudes regarding steroids in mainstream America. But if the bodybuilding community fails to support a movie that was, as producer Alex Buono says, “made for them” then it may represent the loss of an incredible opportunity to influence public opinion regarding anabolic steroids. Read more
June 18, 2008
Thomas T. Perls, MD and S. Jay Olshansky, PhD attack their favorite punching bag, the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M), and other anti-aging management organizations and health care practictioners who prescribe human growth hormone (HGH) to adult patients with adult-onset growth hormone deficiency disorder (GHD) today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Perl and Olshansky state that HGH can ONLY be prescribed for adult GHD if they meet the diagnostic criteria as confirmed by stimulation testing.
They explicitly attack the A4M recommendations that HGHÂ justifiably prescribed to patients with IFG-1 levels below 100ng/mL. Read more
June 14, 2008
HIV activist Michael Mooney speaks about the therapeutic applications of testosterone and anabolic steroids for HIV wasting in a deleted scene from “Bigger Stronger Faster.” Mooney is the co-author of Built to Survive (along with Nelson Vergel) and wrote about steroids and HIV for the anabolic steroid and bodybuilding magazine Muscle Media 2000.
I still meet people who obviously have a serious problem with testosterone deficiency who have all the old AIDS symptoms and the doctor will not give them testosterone because their doctor is so afraid of the legal implications. Thousands of people have died because their doctor wouldn’t prescribe testosterone or anabolic steroids for their HIV.
June 14, 2008
This week, the New York Daily News ran a series of articles “exposing” the use of Viagra (sildenafil) as a performance enhancing drugs in sports (“Source: Roger Clemens, host of athletes pop Viagra to help onfield performance,” June 10).
Roger Clemens, whose claims he never took steroids are under federal investigation, has apparently discovered the benefits of another performance-enhancing drug sweeping the sports world – Viagra.
[...]
Clemens wasn’t alone. The pitcher, who is believed to have scored the drug from a teammate, joined the burgeoning number of athletes who have turned Vitamin V and its over-the-counter substitutes into one of the hottest drugs in locker rooms.
Of course, the performance enhancing benefits of Viagra have been discussed practically ever since Viagra was commercially introduced as a prescription pharmaceutical drug over a decade ago.
Patrick Arnold, of Ergopharm and yes, the innovative chemist who created THG for BALCO, wrote an article about Viagra as a phamaceutical ergogen for MESO-Rx about EIGHT YEARS AGO. Read more
June 12, 2008
A correctional officer employed by the Lebanon Correctional Institution was charged and arrested on four counts of “abusing steroids.” The steroid abuse charges are based on the discovery of “seven vials of anabolic steroid and 16 packs of anabolic steroid tablets” in his apartment (“Corrections officer arrested for steroid abuse,” June 11).
The State of Ohio has apparently codified their steroid laws such that steroid possession is defined as steroid abuse. I guess that is Ohio’s way of settling the debate of steroid use versus steroid abuse! Can steroid use exist without abuse? It doesn’t matter in Ohio courts; if you’re in possession of steroids, you are a steroid abuser.
June 10, 2008
IFBB pro bodybuilder and two-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler talks about anabolic steroid use in the sport of bodybuilding and the necessity of steroids to be the best in bodybuilding in a deleted scene from the highly acclaimed steroid documentary “Bigger Stronger Faster.”
… [E]veryone is looking for that edge. You know there are steroids involved in the sport -Â in bodybuilding – obviously. And that’s the problem with the sport and why it has to get accepted by a lot of society. They look at bodybuilding and they say, ‘oh steroids.’ But they don’t actually understand what goes into the sport. You do what you do to be the best at what you do. You do what you do to win. If you want to call that cheating, fine. But I have the edge. And that’s why I’m the best.
Certainly, there will be debate as to whether this is a tacit admission of steroid use. And certainly, people are going to ask why Muscletech did not fire Jay Cutler for talking about steroids when fitness model and former Muscletech spokesperson Christian Boeving was fired for talking about steroid use.
June 10, 2008
David Jacobs, the convicted steroid dealer that murdered his ex-girlfriend and then committed suicide, continues to take people down posthumously. The lawyer for NFL football player Ryan Fowler, a linebacker for the Tennessee Titans, suspects his client faces suspension based on a so-called non-analytical positive arising from information provide by David Jacobs to the NFL. Jacobs previously publicly identified former Dallas Cowboys football player Matt Lehr as purchaser of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.
I spoke with Bob Johnson of Posedown Magazine Saturday night at the 2008 NPC Lone Star Classic in Plano, Texas; he told me Jacobs behavior and actions were not a big surprise. Last night, Johnson told Jason Trahan of the Dallas Morning News that he is not surprised that Jacobs is hurting people in death as he did in life (“Plano steroids trafficker told newspaper he supplied Cowboys player,” June 10).
“I don’t believe anything Jacobs said. He died the way he lived his life – always taking somebody down with him.”
There is the likely possibility that David Jacobs could take down several more people posthumously. Before he died, he identified many names of individuals who allegedly purchased anabolic steroids from him; he shared the information with prosecutors, journalists, bloggers, and others who asked him about his involvement in steroid distribution. Earlier this year, Jacobs had told the Dallas Morning News that he sold anabolic steroids to football player Ryan Fowler.
Mr. Jacobs spoke to The News about his dealings with Mr. Fowler with the understanding that some details not be immediately published. After his death and after Mr. Fowler’s attorney linked the league’s action to Mr. Jacobs, The News decided to make some of the information public.
Mr. Jacobs said that with his help, Mr. Fowler, who played in Dallas from 2004 to 2006, went from making $400,000 as a Cowboy to signing a four-year, $11.5 million contract with the Titans, where he was a starting linebacker last season.
“After he got his big contract, he came back, knocked on my door and hugged me,” Mr. Jacobs said. “He said, thanks, I just got $12 million.”
Mr. Jacobs also divulged this information to federal prosecutors over the last year.
In addition, he turned over text messages, e-mails and other evidence of his dealings with Mr. Fowler and other players to the NFL in recent weeks in an attempt to “clean up” the game.
Jacobs showed no reluctance dropping names of “steroid customers” when I interviewed him earlier this year. There is no reason to suspect that he did not share the same information with prosecutors.
They asked me about a few people. They asked me about ********* and they ask me about *********. And for obvious reasons, I was in magazines and videos with them and everything like that so there was a very clear link and association. And they ask me straight up, “Has ********* ever been involved in distributing steroids?†And I said absolutely not, not in any way. As a matter of fact, he has been very adamant and not ever being involved in any of it. He has a good contract, he has an export business, and he has his own gym. The guy wouldn’t even need to think about doing anything like that. He is making great money on his own. Then they just said ‘ok.’ And that was the first and last time they ever asked about him.
[...]
If I were to tell them every single person that I sold steroids to, then half the IFBB would go away. That would just be ridiculous. That’s why people who know me and know who are my friends are and who I have been involved with, that’s why they still stand by me and say thanks for being strong and being cool because… As you can see ********** hasn’t been arrested. As you can see, ********* and *********, and all these other guys they haven’t been arrested. Nothing has happened to them.
[...]
I think ********* and ********* and ********* and ********* and all these guys who have not been brought in or anything like that attests to the fact that they are not targeting bodybuilders. And not only that, it attests to the fact that I didn’t do anything or say anything to get them in trouble.
June 9, 2008
Muscletech probably thought they succeeded in managing damage control when they fired Christian Boeving for talking about his steroid use in what was (at the time) a little known, low budget, independent documentary about steroids that just appeared at the Sundance Film Festival.
They probably didn’t expect that the movie would be a critically acclaimed hit. They probably didn’t expect bodybuilding websites to hear about Christian Boeving’s firing months ago and start blogging about it. They didn’t expected director Chris Bell to be asked about Muscletech’s hypocrisy and Christian Boeving in interviews. They probably didn’t expect Magnolia Pictures to buy the film and distribute it nationwide. They probably didn’t expect Christian Boeving to speak so proudly about telling the truth and vocally about Muscletech’s hypocrisy regarding anabolic steroids.
Muscletech certainly didn’t expect their hypocrisy about anabolic steroids to be exposed nationally by the New York Times (“A Self-Described Steroid User Loses Job as Fitness Model,” June 9)!
“But I didn’t think I would get into that much trouble, because I thought it was pretty apparent that the top people in the industry use steroids to look like we do.â€
A company whose products he endorsed, Iovate Health Sciences, apparently did not think so, and promptly severed Mr. Boeving’s contract. Iovate Health Sciences did not return calls for comment last week.
Mr. Boeving had represented over-the-counter dietary supplements in Iovate’s MuscleTech division, including Hydroxycut, which is meant to burn fat, and Nitro-Tech, which is meant to build muscle. But the type of performance-enhancing steroids Mr. Boeving referred to in the movie are legal only with a doctor’s prescription; he said in an interview that he had a prescription for testosterone.
While he may not been breaking the law, Mr. Boeving was apparently breaking a taboo in the bodybuilding world, one that Mr. Bell’s documentary was aiming to expose. “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been looking at muscle magazines,†Mr. Bell said in an interview. “I would see these guys that are huge, and they’d say, take this pill and you’ll look like this. We know that’s not the case.â€
June 7, 2008
Prince Harrison’s 2008 NPC Lone Star Classic bodybuilding contest featured an emotional tribute to IFBB Fitness Pro Amanda Jo Earhart-Savell by Jill Brooks, a representative of Amanda Savell’s family in Plano, and NPC Texas Chair Lee Thompson.
The Earhart family will have a private memorial ceremony on Sunday at 10:45AM that is restricted to approximately 100 invited friends and family. Afterwards the Earhart family will host an IFBB/NPC party at their house to celebrate Amanda Jo; the party is open to the bodybuilding and fitness community that loved and supported Amanda.
