The review article profiles steroid dealer David Jacobs and his introduction to anabolic steroids, his integration into the bodybuilding scene, his networking with pro football players, his decision to import and manufacture anabolic steroids, his steroid bust, the dismantling of the Texas steroid network, and his ostracism from the bodybuilding community (”Plano resident’s steroid distribution ring was one of the largest in U.S.,” April 24).
I recommend reading the complete article for a better understanding of the chronology and scope of the Texas steroid investigation. Below are a few excerpts.
David Jacobs’ decision to manufacture and distribute anabolic steroids:
At Lewisville Lake’s Party Cove one weekend, he met his first pro bodybuilder, Art Atwood. The two became friends, and Mr. Atwood helped train the up-and-coming rookie.
Both men were taking steroids, but were unhappy with shoddy Mexican imports.
Mr. Jacobs went online and found a solution: recipes for steroids using raw Chinese powder. Mr. Jacobs soon parlayed his knowledge of Asia, gleaned during his Nokia business trips, into contacts with English-speaking middlemen to the Chinese steroid powder factories.
Sloppy packaging that led to steroid bust:
On March 19, 2007, the United Parcel Service intercepted a soggy package sent from Mr. Jacobs’ Plano home, bound for Wichita, Kan. When officials opened the box, they found a broken glass vial of what turned out to be steroids.
Authorities arrested the man in Kansas who had ordered steroids from Mr. Jacobs, court documents say. Jamie Mongeau, an amateur bodybuilder, told investigators that Mr. Jacobs was his supplier.
Ostracism from bodybuilding community:
Brian Dobson, owner of Arlington’s MetroFlex gym, which produced eight-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman and where Mr. Jacobs used to train with other bodybuilding friends, said that since his bust, Mr. Jacobs has been ostracized by the bodybuilding community he once serviced.
“A lot of people hate him,” Mr. Dobson said. “To a lot of the other guys who were his buddies, once he got caught, he became the black plague.”
The full text of the article is available on the Dallas Morning News website.
While the attention that is currently paid to the subject makes it often appear as if the problem is of relatively recent vintage, you’ll learn about a scandal in the 1950s that rocked the world of track and field in much the same way as the Festina scandal and other scandals have rocked cycling over the past 10 years. At the center of the story was a doctor who claimed that many of the athletes who broke the four-minute mile mark in the 1950s did so through the use of amphetamines. His character and behavior are eerily reminiscent of other, more recent figures. An interesting outgrowth of that scandal: One of the first scientific studies aimed at determining the real benefit of a performance-enhancing drug.
But most of all, what I hope you’ll get out of the book is an appreciation and understanding that doping is not a problem that just magically appeared over the last twenty years (despite how the many in the mainstream media seem to cast the story). The desire to boost human performance, and to find ways of pushing the boundaries of what we’re capable of, has existed for a very, very long time. And at one point in time, “the human experiments” that doping athletes perform were once even considered merely using technology in man’s quest to be better, faster and stronger. The perfectability of man/woman, if you will.
I really look forward to reading this book. And I really hope contemporary sportswriters take the time to read it as well to place the current doping scandals in their proper historical context.
The Sports Illustrated version of the history of anabolic steroids in sports is now available online in its entirety with the launch of SI Vault.
Sports Illustrated on March 20 plans to unveil SI Vault, a new section within SI.com that will feature digitized archives of the magazine’s complete collection of content throughout its 54-year history. At launch, the online archive will feature 150,000 articles, 500,000 images and 2,800 covers…
Sports Illustrated has documented the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports for several decades. Now, every steroid article, every growth hormone article, every doping article is available to read for free at the SI Vault.
Charles “Modi” Modiano of Cosellout has begun the process of indexing several anabolic steroid articles that we feel MESO-Rx will find particularly interesting (”SI Vault: Sports Illustrated’s 40 Years of Steroids Coverage,” April 2). Of course, Sports Illustrated, from the beginning and throughout its historic coverage of anabolic steroids, has been instrumental in encouraging a climate of steroid hysteria that made the dispassionate, scientific discussion of anabolic steroids almost impossible.
To our knowledge Bil Gilbert’s extensive three part series in 1969 is SI’s first substantial foray into the subject of PEDS with it’s second part on baseball a must-read for historical context. The next 15 years marked many steroid/PED discoveries in sports like Olympics track & field, cycling, and body-building, but wouldn’t receive major attention or cover treatement (see Brian Bosworth) until the NCAA and NFL football became exposed in the latter 1980s. In the 1998, the Olympics took center stage as Ben Johnson was “busted” on SI’s cover. One year later SI printed another article that contained allegations against Carl Lewis and Florence Griffith-Joyner but few heard of the story. In 1991, former NFL star Lyle Alzado personally blamed his impending death on steroid abuse, but doctors could not corroborate such a claim. However, this SI cover story’s set a tone of “steroids scare” that would make it almost difficult to have reasonable discussions on the health risks of Steroids/PEDs for another 20 years.
The Los Angeles Police Department discovered former bodybuilding cosmetic surgeon Bruce Nadler, MD and his wife dead as the result of gunshot wounds on Monday, February 4, 2008. Authorities believe it is an apparent murder-suicide perpetrated by Bruce Nadler.
Bruce Nadler called himself the “world’s strongest plastic surgeon.” He was probably the best known cosmetic surgeon catering to amateur and professional bodybuilders. He had performed over 700 gynecomastia surgeries in his career; “gyno” is a side effect of anabolic steroid use when antiaromatase and/or estrogen antagonists are not use concurrently.
After retiring from the practice of medicine in August 2005, Dr. Nadler, who called himself “the world’s strongest plastic surgeon,” wrote the “The Nip Tuck Workout: Exercise through the Eyes of a Plastic Surgeon” and subsequently moved with his wife to Los Angeles to reinvent himself in a new career as personal trainer with the opening of Nip Tuck Fitness LA in Beverly Hills.
Retired plastic surgeon and certified personal trainer Bruce J. Nadler M.D. has brought his Plastic Synergy training system to Los Angeles. As stated in his book, “The Nip Tuck Workout - Exercise through the Eyes of a Plastic Surgeon,” Dr. Nadler has created an exercise program based on the plastic surgical principles of proportion and symmetry. It combines careful analysis with an individualized exercise prescription.
Bruce Nadler, MD retired after the New York State Board of Professional Medical Conduct charged him with 29 specifications of professional misconduct in thirteen patients according to public records. Rather than fight the charges, Nadler submitted and consent agreement and voluntarily relinquished his medical license.
Failure to obtain and/or note an adequate and complete medical history and/or history of current complaint from patient.
Failure to perform and/or note a complete and appropriate physical examination of patient.
Failure to obtain and/or note appropriate and medically indicated laboratory studies on patient including: prolactin, TSH, LH, hepatic and renal function, and assays for estrogen levels and HCG.
Failure to properly diagnose patient’s condition and/or rule out underlying disorders.
Inappropriately and without medical idnication and/or justification, prescribing and/or maintaining patient on various medications.
Failure to maintain a medical record for patient in accordance with accepted medical standards which accurately reflects his care and treatment of the patient.
Bruce Nadler’s beliefs regarding anabolic steroids and bodybuilding were controversial for physician. He explained his own steroid use and his willingness to prescribe steroids and growth hormone to his patients in an interview with Testosterone Nation:
I’m my own test laboratory in that respect because, in the last two years, I’ve been taking 6 to 8 IUs a week of growth hormone, and I alternate between 200 mg a week of deca and 200 mg of testosterone cypionate the next week. Instead of going super physiological, I believe in just going to maximum natural levels to that of a man in his twenties. In this way, there are no side effects.
Nadler was also critical of the steroid hysteria in the U.S. and the political posturing surrounding anabolic steroids:
I’ve always felt that politicians always have to make the majority of the electorate think that they’re doing something? So they inconvenience a small, unimportant group, like bodybuilders. They have no idea what they’re talking about. Somebody hands them a speech, and they go! They took something that could have been done safely and sent it to the black market and all of the inherent dangers that go along with dealing with that element. Will they ever be legal again? I hope so.
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.
Last night was the world premier of Christopher Bell’s steroid documentary, “Bigger, Stronger, Faster - Is It Still Cheating if Everyone is Doing it?” at the Sundance Film Festival. I hope it wins the prize. It features dozens of people, both pro-steroid and anti-steroid, including Rick Collins, William Llewellyn, and John Romano. I just interviewed the director Chris Bell and will post the transcript of my interview with him shortly!
Jose Caseco is writing “Vindicated,” a new book about anabolic steroids in baseball. It is the sequel to the bestselling book “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big” that ignited the steroids in baseball scandal. It has sorta become a historical document in baseball for its role in baseball’s steroid scandal. Canseco claims he will include information about additional baseball players, such as Alex Rodriguez and likely Roger Clemens, not included in his original expose of steroid use. Canseco identified several professional baseball players as users of anabolic steroids in Juiced including Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Rafael Palmeiro, Iván Rodríguez, and Juan González.
The new steroid book, scheduled to be released on Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season, was originally to be co-authored by former Sports Illustrated reporter Don Yaeger. He was the ghostwriter for Canseco’s Juiced. After Yaeger took a look at Canseco’s materials, he quit the project telling the NY Daily News:
I’m passing… I had a chance to review the Jose Canseco (material) that he provided me. I don’t think there’s a book there. I don’t know what they’re going to do. I don’t think he’s got what he claims to have, certainly doesn’t have what he claims to have on A-Rod… There’s no meat on the bones.
Officially, the publisher has diplomatically cited “editorial delays” as the reason for not publishing the book.
By mutual agreement with José Canseco, we have decided not to publish his book ‘Vindicated…’ After much consideration, we have agreed to part ways due to editorial delays that made it impossible to maintain our original publishing schedule.
So, Jose Canseco has been forced to changed publishers and find a new ghostwriter selecting Pablo F. Fenjves, a former National Enquirer writer; Fenjves was the ghostwriter for O.J. Simpson’s book outlining how he would have killed Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.
“Running with Arnold,” a documentary about California Governor and Bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, first premiered at the South by Southwest (SWSW) film festival in Austin last March 2007. It was not a particularly ambitious film and full of factual errors. Certainly, Schwarzenegger’s admitted steroid use is fair game, but the director also makes pathetic attempts to link Arnold Schwarzenegger to Adolf Hitler by repeatedly juxtaposing Nazi imagery within the film. Many bad films have debuted at film festivals and quickly disappeared. But for some reason, this film is now being released in theatres (at least in California) and at least for this weekend.
How unfair is the portrayal of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the documentary? Even liberal activist Alec Baldwin, who was hired to do the voiceover narration, had his lawyers (unsuccessfully) issue a cease and desist to compel the producers of the film to remove his voiceover narration from the film.
…Schwarzenegger deserves to be treated fairly and the film’s images of Nazi rallies were over the line… The people of California have the right to reelect an unqualified man to lead their state, and they have the right to do so without unfair and ultimately offensive images of the Third Reich thrown in for bad measure…
Mike Gabrawy, the film’s producer, defended the juxtaposition of Nazi imagery with Arnold Schwarzenegger:
I knew we’d get resistance to a film about the most prominent Republican in California. We’re all just a bit shocked that it’s coming from a supporter of the film and arguably the most outspoken Democrat. The [Third Reich] images that Mr. Baldwin mentioned were used to make points about Waldheim and Arnold’s father.
Well, the reviews are starting to come out now, and few critics seem sympathetic towards the producers of the documentary feeling it’s less of a documentary and more like a 72-minute political attack ad against Schwarzenegger!
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.
My first introduction to Dan Duchaine was through the photocopied pages of Underground Steroid Handbook that circulated among bodybuilding circles at the University of Texas. I was impressed by the matter of fact, straightforward discussion of anabolic steroid information for muscle-building and performance-enhancing purposes. There was a lot of accurate information contained within those pages, much moreso than contemporary journal articles and information provided by physicians. And for this, we generally overlooked the errors and mistakes made by Duchaine.
As one of the first writers to disseminate uncensored information on the use of anabolic steroids, we looked forward to everything Dan wrote from articles in Muscle Media 2000 to Dirty Dieting Newsletter to misc.fitness.weights usenet newsgroups.
So, in the mid-1990s when I planned to launch my own steroid-related website at Mesomorphosis.com, Duchaine was one of the first people I wanted to consult. I soon had my wish. My wife and I were invited by the beautiful fitness diva and sex columnist Laura Moore to spent a few days with her and Dan in Jackson, Mississippi.
My continuing education in anabolic pharmacology with Dan included watching pornography (with careful attention to enlarged clitorises that were a side effect of the steroids used by female bodybuilders featured in the films).
The pervert in Dan was immediately obvious to anyone who met him in person. Over the ensuing years, Dan revealed to me more of his cynicism and hopelessness regarding his personal relationships with women. But the full story is even more tragic than I could have imagined. I liked Dan Duchaine - he was always nice to me and my wife.
is scheduled to be released on June 30, 2008. Rosen tells us more about it in his 
