Since it was announced that Magnolia Pictures had acquired the distribution rights to the steroid documentary “Bigger Stronger Faster“, I’ve been looking forward to comments from Magnolia Pictures owner Mark Cuban regarding the film. Today, he finally made an entry on his weblog Blog Maverick with a few brief comments. I was disappointed that he took this opportunity to suggest anabolic steroid use was responsible for Gregg Valentino’s arms! This does not give a good public image of steroid users.
I love this movie because its a hysterical look at the sports world. Steroids are the common theme in the movie, but its a theme that is ripe for humor. How can a guy with guns like Gregg Valentino not be…
Although I’m a big supporter of the steroid film project and have written positively about the movie, I’ve also written about my disappointment regarding the use of Valentino in the movie trailer; it only spreads steroid misinformation about the effects of steroids. The public actually believes that Valentino’s arms are the result of steroids. The documentary does nothing to dispel this.
Overall, the movie is terrific at educating the viewer about the side effects of anabolic steroids and the issues surrounding their use in sports and society. But perhaps, the asterisk included in the movie title “Bigger Stronger Faster*” should have referred to the following clarification:
*Gregg Valentino’s arms are NOT the result of anabolic steroids.
I was fortunate to be in Venice, California this week when my friend Rehan Jalali invited me to attend the premiere party for “Bigger Stronger Faster*” in Hollywood on Tuesday, May 27, 2008. I had the chance to see director Chris Bell, producers and co-writers Tasmin Rawady and Alex Buono again since I last met with them in Dallas. I also had a chance to meet Chris’ parents and brothers Mark “Smelly” Bell and Mike “Mad Dog” Bell. I interviewed several of the “stars” of the film as well including Christian Boeving, Rick Schaff, and Rehan Jalali and other fitness celebrities and insiders in attendance like Mike Ryan. These raw, unedited video streams were originally broadcast live from the Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California.
The defense attorney for Roberto Pulidoblamed anabolic steroids for a long list of crimes committed as part of a police corruption scandal. Pulido claims that being “pumped full of steroids” caused him to get involved in transporting cocaine into Boston. He claims that his steroid addiction made him exaggerate many of his behaviors.
Pulido “knowingly and intentionally combined, conspired, confederated and agreed… with other persons, known and unknown, to distribute, and to possess with intent to distribute, a quantity or mixture of a substance containing cocaine” in excess of 140 kilograms.
Pulido obtained identifying information for the identity theft ring, including name, address, date of birth and social security number of identity theft victims. Pulido used Boston Police Department computers to access Registry of Motor vehicle database and pull identifying information on expensive vehicles he observed while on duty. Pulido said, “it’s easy for me, I just run people’s plates, you know. I go look for fucking fancy ass cars and fucking run ‘em like Brookline and Cambridge…”
Pulido purchased fraudulent gift cards in amounts in excess of $100,000 at 50 cents on the dollar. He used the gift cards himself and sold other gift cards at a profit.
Pulido provided protection for approximately 50-60 after-hours narcotics and prostitution parties where nude dancers and prostitutes often sold sexual favors including lap dances, fellatio and sexual intercourse. Pulido wanted to expand into protecting “water parties” where bottled water and ecstasy were sold in combination.
Pulido planted narcotics and a gun in the vehicle of a former business partner, had him arrested during which he had his home robbed of $40,000. Pulido threatened another business partner saying “…if the dog is out and he tries to attackus, half of the dog is gonna be hung on the front door and the other half is gonna be hung on the rear door… Don’t let it go personal. If you want to make it personal, after the dog it will be your wife, then it’ll be your mother, then it’ll be your brother, and it’ll be your unborn child.” Pulido, in full military gear, physically assaulted an individual he suspected of stealing his car stereo stating.
Pulido cashed illegal alien’s checks for a 10% money laundering fee.
Pulido attempted to sell his girlfriend’s truck to a “chop-shop” and filed a false police report claiming it was stolen in order to collect reimbursement from his insurance company in a case of insurance fraud.
Pulido smuggled illegal aliens into the country for $5,000 per person.
Pulido gave up sensitive information on his fellow officers at the Boston Police Department to individuals outside the department.
Pulido aided and abetted loan sharking.
Pulido trafficked in stolen electronics.
Apparently steroid use by police officers is the least of our worries; a bigger threat to the public safety is police corruption. Unless, of course, you believe that anabolic steroids are the root of all evil when it comes to police corruption!
Several cases have recently been reported (Coacher & Workman 1989; Editorial 1988b,c,d,e; Lubell 1989; Maryland v. Michael D. Williams 1986; Moss 1988) wherein presumed psychological and behavioural effects of anabolic-androgenic steroids are alleged by defendants to have significantly influenced the commission of criminal acts. This legal strategy has been identified in the popular press as the ‘dumbbell defense’ (Editorial 1988c).
These defense strategies have become more popular with the increasing degree of steroid demonization in our society. Fortunately, these legal strategies, lacking in any credible scientific support, are not terrible effective in our justice system.
Roberto Pulido (aka Kiko aka Anthony Williams) was an corrupt officer with the Boston Police Department who was involved in various illegal activities including steroid dealing. He regularly imported anabolic steroids such as Winstrol, Dianabol, Deca Durabolin and Testosterone from a Greek source; he ordered them by phone, deposited funds in the source’s U.S. bank account, and received large shipments via common courier at several private homes and businesses on at least five occassions according to court documents. He even advised FBI uncover agents on how to successfully import anabolic steroids from overseas.
Pulido boasted, “the key to mailing shit (steroids) here in this country is you gotta mail it in photo paper. You know the paper, that fucking carbon paper … you buy that paper, you wrap it in that and that’s it. There’s nothing that can get an x-ray through that, and dogs can’t sniff through that.”
Pulido was so corrupt and involved in so many illegal activities that federal prosecutors didn’t even bother with steroid conspiracy or steroid distribution charges. They settled on conspiracy to distribute cocaine and heroin; he escorted trucks bringing at least 140 kilograms of cocaine into Boston with plans to protect shipments of 500 kg on an ongoing basis. He was sentenced to 26 years in prison for this crime.
Pulido’s public defender, who said her client’s abuse of steroids contributed to his crimes.
[...]
Pulido said he was pumped full of steroids when he suggested to undercover agents in Atlantic City that he knew a good way to transport cocaine into Boston.
He said a steroid addiction made him exaggerate many of the statements he made on the surveillance tapes and called many of his comments pure fantasy. In his mind at the time, he said, he was playing a role in a Hollywood movie. He even recited lines from “Training Day,” the film about a corrupt officer.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I was acting,” he said. “It was pure puffery.”
Senator Hillary Clinton supports federal efforts to eliminate steroids from professional sports:
Senator Clinton sees our sports leagues as public trusts and our sports heroes as key public role models for our children, and believes in the importance of promoting clean, drug-free professional sports. In her view, leagues should take the lead in vigorously enforcing their own strict drug policies, but if we were to see frequent and flagrant continued abuse of performance-enhancing drugs by professional athletes, she would certainly speak out against it as president and consider appropriate federal action.
Senator Barack Obama supports spending additional federal funds to enforce existing steroid laws:
As a father and an avid sports fan, I understand the dangers that performance enhancing drugs pose for athletes, as well as the teenagers who seek to emulate them, not to mention the effect that these drugs have on the integrity of sports. As president, I would use the bully pulpit of my office to warn Americans about the dangers of performance enhancing drugs, and I would put greater resources into enforcement of existing drug laws. I would also convene a summit of the commissioners of the professional sports leagues, as well as university presidents, to explore options for decreasing the use of these drugs.
Since the beginning of the steroids scandals John McCain has consistently said that the important aspect of the issue is not the well-being of the multi-milliondollar professional athletes who choose to use banned substances to cheat themselves and their sport, but rather the effects these substances are having on our youth. In a simple point and click, our children today are able to obtain illegal performance-enhancing substances on the Internet in just a few days. The use of these substances among adolescents in the U.S. has reached epidemic proportions and the health effects of usage are devastating — leading to depression, suicide, stunted growth, and the deterioration of the liver, kidneys, bones, and reproductive organs. We have every reason to believe that what kids are doing indubitably will show up in doctor’s offices 15 years from now, so John McCain believes it is imperative that we act now.
A McCain administration would continue an aggressive prosecutorial approach, and will focus more on educating our youth about the destructive effects of these substances. And it’s not just performance-enhancing drugs. Our kids are obtaining prescription drugs over the Internet at an alarming rate. His administration would encourage schools to include lessons concerning the adverse health effects of these substances as part of physical education, and disseminate these educational messages at the grassroots level. In addition, my administration would ensure that dietary supplement manufacturers are in compliance with the Dietary Supplement Health Education Act (DSHEA) and not seeking shelter for substances that were never intended to be protected under the Act. A McCain administration would continue to pressure professional sports leagues to adopt zero-tolerance doping policies, and ensure that the Olympic athletes that represent our Nation do so with honor. Also, A McCain administration will provide the necessary support to research laboratories that are working to outpace the science developed by those who seek substances undetectable to testing.
USA Today did not ask the campaign of Representative Ron Paul for his position on anabolic steroids in sports, but his campaign has unapologetically gone on record as being completely against the war on drugs which would logically include the war on steroids:
For the first 140 years of our history, we had essentially no Federal war on drugs, and far fewer problems with drug addiction and related crimes was a consequence. In the past 30 years, even with the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the drug war, little good has come of it. We have vacillated from efforts to stop the drugs at the source to severely punishing the users, yet nothing has improved. This war has been behind most big government policy powers of the last 30 years, with continual undermining of our civil liberties and personal privacy.
The lack of sensitivity exhibited by the companies and organizations that administer doping and steroid testing is upsetting a lot of people. I understand certain protocol must be followed but the invasive nature of such procedures will inevitably have a negative backlash. The latest instance of drug testers invading events of personal significance comes from Cuero High School in Texas (”Steroid testing interrupts award ceremony,” May 12).
Thirty random student-athletes were tested at Cuero on Thursday for the first time since the UIL adopted the testing program. The testing was scheduled from 8-11:30 a.m. and interfered with the awards which started at 9 a.m. The time conflict forced student-athletes to miss parts of the ceremony.
The UIL refused to change the testing times when requested by school officials.
“We talked to the UIL about changing the time, but they would not change it,” Reeve said. “The school doesn’t have any control over when we’re going to be tested. This is the first year for testing and we were chosen by lottery. We couldn’t let anybody know about the testing.”
While it may not seem like a big deal to most people. The family of students affected are quite upset. Grandmother Mary Kahlich shared her frustration about the incidence in her recent comments on steroid testing in high schools at the MESO-Rx Blog.
As a result of this, my grandson missed his award presentations. just because he could not pee in and fill a cup. This child has worked very hard and achieved a lot. He has finished High School in 3 years and will be going to Texas A&M this fall in the ROTC progran with paid scholarship. He received many awards of which he was not present to accept. He now has on pictures to put in his school album to show his hard work. His other grandparents and aunt and uncle drove from elsewhere to support him but never got to see him reeive not one award. I believe the testing could have taken place just after the ceremony. They knew which kids that they were going to test. They could have done this after the ceremony. Where were the kids going to go? They were all marched into the gymn y class with all teachers, principles, aides, etc. I am writing so that no other child will have to go thru this. No wonder good kids go bad. All sports activities were over with. This should have been done earlier in the year.
Kahlich’s comments highlight another problem with steroid testing in Texas high schools. Why would steroid testing be conducted on graduating seniors when all of their high school extracurricular sporting activities have been concluded?
Belgian cyclist Kevin Van Impe was taken for a routine drugs test just as he was at the crematorium filling in papers following the death of his baby son, media reported Saturday.
The Quick Step rider was at Lochristi crematorium when a drugs tester turned up and demanded he provide a sample, warning that otherwise he could face a two-year suspension.
“He wouldn’t even come back later in the day. It was either do it right on the spot or it would be taken as if I had refused,” Van Impe told Web site www.sport.be.
Van Impe was arranging the funeral of son Jayden, born prematurely on Monday and who died just six hours later.
After all, in some instances, doping testers allow some flexibility in exactly when athletes can submit their sample. For example, it seems that allowing two hours for an athlete to conclude a sexual liaison with his girlfriend before submitting a doping sample is permissible.
Florian Busch remains eligible to play for Germany at the IIHF World Hockey Championship.
The World Anti-Doping Agency had requested that he be suspended from the event after refusing a doping test two months ago but the IIHF decided Wednesday that it would not take that action.
The German Ice Hockey Association cleared Busch to play before the start of the world championship and the IIHF says it is not in a position to interfere with decisions made by its member nations.
I talked to a fitness model named Christian Boeving, who was probably the top fitness model in the past 10 years for the company MuscleTech. Christian was basically…his contract ended and they would not redo his contract, and he was their top guy, because he was in this movie. They saw a little clip on CNN and were like, “You know what Christian, that’s it!” They’re not allowed to tell the truth. It’s like they know they’re taking all of these supplements and steroids, but they’re not allowed to say that. There is a big hypocrisy going on when a company like MuscleTech says they do not support the use of anabolic steroids and then they also sponsor the Mr. Olympia contest, which is not drug tested and we also know that Mr. Olympia is definitely on steroids. It’s a big hypocrisy going on that we can’t tell the truth in this country. You see an ad with a guy who is juiced out of his mind, but he’s selling supplements. Who are you kidding?
The documentary focused on the state-sponsored East German doping program and the secret administration of anabolic steroids to female children without their knowledge or consent (or parental consent). The goal of the film was not to necessarily demonize steroids but to condemn a state-sponsored doping system that superceded individual choice to pursue victory at all costs even the victimization of children.
Clearly, there is a big difference between healthy adult men who “choose” to use anabolic steroids and little girls who are “forced” to use unknown substances by government bureaucratics without regard for their health. The documentary interviews four athletes (Ute Krause, Rica Reinisch, Katharina Bullin, and Heidi Krieger aka Andres Krieger) that were involuntarily subjected to steroid use as young girls and chronicles how it affected their lives.
Under the auspices of East Germany’s elite sports federation, headed by Manfred Ewald and monitored by the Ministry of State Security (known as Stasi), the government used doping as part of a deceptive master plan to secure international prestige through success in sports. Girls as young as 12 were recruited from across the country, and without their knowledge, were regularly administered untested steroids and male hormones as part of their training. Ultimately, Olympic gold came at a disturbing price for many of the German athletes, specificially side effects ranging from male-type hair growth and deepened voices to liver and heart disease, depression, infertility, miscarriages, and even death.
The film lists various documented side effects of anabolic steroids (such as Jenapharm’s Oral Turinabol and STS-646) based on Stasi records and long-term medical records of athletes affected. But it also makes some spurious connections to other side effects such as self-mutilation, breast cancer, and changes in sexual identity.
Many critics seek to connect the East German steroid scandal with contemporary doping scandals. Since the scandals all involve steroids, the suggestion is that steroid use in sports could possibly lead to a repeat of East German tragedies if we are not careful. According to a Plain Dealer television critic:
What emerges from this “Secrets of the Dead” installment is a cautionary tale for individuals and sports organizations wrestling with the curse of drugs.
Watching how athletes’ health, sexuality and lives were so willingly traded for Olympic medals, you can’t help but wonder what pressures are at work in the U.S. where so many athletes choose to ingest potentially career-ending and physically damaging drugs.
However, the lack of consent and forcible/abusive nature of steroid use by East Germany clearly differentiates the Stasi doping program from subsequent steroid scandals.
I was disappointed to see Gregg Valentino at the beginning of the trailer conveying the message to a mainstream public that his arms are the result of anabolic steroids when that is clearly not the case. I actually enjoyed Valentino’s appearance in the film; Valentino was very open about steroid use and his scenes were very entertaining and provided a good deal of comic relief. So while I enjoyed Valentino in the movie, not so much in the trailer!
America’s performance-enhancing appetite has never been bigger. And it’s not just in professional sports or Hollywood. From high school locker rooms to anti-aging clinics, our nation is embracing steroids and human growth hormones like never before, spurring a furious debate about the ethics of enhancement. Join Christopher Bell, who documented his brothers’ struggle to be “the best,” BALCO founder Victor Conte, Jon Romano and Mark Haskins in a provocative discussion about the pitfalls and promise of the asterisk era, and where we go from here. Moderated by Steroid Nation author Shaun Assael.
New Yorkers have really embraced the film; this was confirmed firsthand by Anthony Roberts who had the opportunity to see Bigger Faster Stronger for the second time witnessing a large crowd of bodybuilders at the screening. Several sports writers, bloggers, and movie critics have screened the film at Tribeca and have written mostly positive reviews.
If anyone had the opportunity to attend the panel discussion, please post your reactions to the event in the comments below.
, and included Chris Bell, John Romano of 
