Reporters from around the country have descended upon Houston, Texas pursuing their steroid witch hunt against anyone who may have used steroids or could have potentially provided anabolic steroids to Major League Baseball players e.g. Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte. The targets in their steroid investigation have expanded from fitness professionals Kelly Blair (of 1-on-1 Elite Personal Fitness) and Shaun Kelley (of Shaun Kelley Weight Control) to at least one Houston-area physician.
While the New York Daily News admits they have no evidence that Shaun Kelley provided steroids to Roger Clemens, they do not hesitate to point the finger at Lisa Routh, M.D. of Brainwaves Neuroimaging Clinic in Houston who worked with Shaun Kelley.
Neither does the Daily News have evidence that Dr. Routh prescribed steroids to Roger Clemens or any major league baseball player for that matter. But they seem content to demonize her because she was outspoken in her defense of the use of anabolic steroids in medicine. She admits to prescribing testosterone and growth hormone to policemen, professional wrestlers, and people who work out in an effort to improve their quality of life. Furthermore, Dr. Routh proposed that professional athletes be permitted to use performance enhancing drugs under a doctor’s supervision (”Houston-area gyms part of drug culture beyond sports scope,” March 16).
Interviews with Routh, of the Brainwaves Medical Center in Houston, and with eight former and current employees of Kelley, reveal a corner of the fitness industry where the same drugs that are stigmatizing professional sports are seen simply as a lifestyle choice for others.
Routh told The News that she regularly prescribed testosterone and human growth hormone for a large number of Boston policemen, who “get on a frickin’ plane and come down here twice a year, for frickin’ growth hormone and testosterone.”
She said she prescribes other hormones for menopausal women and professional wrestlers - all in the name of quality of life. Furthermore she argued for legalizing such drugs in professional sports, provided athletes have medical care.
“We pay them ridiculously, because we expect performance, and I think the bottom line is safety,” says Routh, who proposes allowing big-league baseball clubs to contract with five or 10 doctors in every city who would be the only league-approved providers of drugs. Players caught going elsewhere for their ‘roids would get hit with a fine.
“If someone wants to use human growth hormone or a testosterone product, they need to be under a physician’s supervision,” says Routh. “If they buy stuff off the black market or off some gym rat and they’re not under a doctor’s supervision, they should pay a penalty, and they should get the penalty that hurts, in the wallet.”
The Daily News also persists in its efforts to tarnish and incriminate fitness professionals in Houston. They continued their attack on 1-on -1 Elite Personal Fitness (even though Kelly Blair categorically denied their allegations) by reporting that co-owner Kevin Schexnider was prescribed testosterone cypionate and Anadrol by Revolution Medical Center in Phoenix several years ago; further Schexnider knew former bodybuilder Craig Titus who is awaiting trial on murder charges.
Another internet-based anabolic steroid source arrested in Opeartion Raw Deal in the fall of 2007 has pleaded guilty. Robert Cashmon of New Hampshire pleaded guilty to six counts including “possession of anabolic steroids with intent to distribute,” “conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids,” “receipt in interstate commerce of misbranded drugs” and “laundering of monetary instruments.” Specific steroids sold by Cashmon as cited in the indictment include oxymetholone, methandrostenolone and misbranded stanozolol (misbranded as CP Winstrol).
Cashmon is scheduled for sentencing on April 28, 2008.
Could you imagine a pharmaceutical company (whose top-selling drugs are anabolic steroids) becoming the title sponsor of a professional bodybuilding contest? What is Unimed, whose top selling drug products are Anadrol-50 (oxymetholone) and AndroGel (testosterone), sponsored the Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding contest resulting in the “Unimed Pharmaceuticals IFBB Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding Championships”?!! Or how about Savient, whose top-selling drug product is Oxandrin (oxandrolone), sponsoring the Arnold Classic resulting in the Savient Pharmaceuticals IFBB Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic Bodybuilding Championships?!! Observers would comment on the irony given that professional bodybuilding is practically synonymous with the use of anabolic steroids.
Interestingly, in the sport of professional cycling, such an unlikely sponsorship has been taking place since 2006 when the biotechnology company Amgen became the title sponsor of professional cycling’s Amgen Tour of California. One prominent cycling commentator called it the “death of irony.” You see, Amgen’s most successful product to date is Epogen (recombinant erythropoietin); it’s second best-selling drug is a long-acting version of Epogen called Aranesp (darbepoietin). Epogen is the most notorious performance-enhancing drug in cycling; Epogen is to professional cycling what anabolic steroids are to professional bodybuilding!
If the controversial title sponsorship was not enough, Tour of California organizers accidentally forgot to drug test riders for Epogen during the inaugural 2006 Amgen Tour of California. They tested for all other banned drugs but simply forgot to test for Epogen!
And why is Amgen spending $35 million sponsorship over a 5-year commitment on professional cycling? Is it because professional cyclist represent proof of the miraculous performance-enhancing effects of their products? Not exactly. Amgen’s scientific director Dr. Steven Elliott explains:
Our opportunity is to educate cyclists that there is an appropriate way to use a drug, and doping in sport is not it… Our medicines were made because we want to treat grievous illnesses. They’re not for enhancing performance in sport.
I think the sport of professional bodybuilding could use a $35 million infusion by a giant pharmaceutical company who manufacturers anabolic steroids and/or human growth hormone who could use the sponsorship as an opportunity to promote the therapeutic benefits of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.
But then again, along with the Amgen sponsorship of the Tour of California came pressure to expand anti-doping testing and improve anti-doping procedures.
The upcoming 2008 Amgen Tour of California cycling road race will adopt the most comprehensive anti-doping protocol in cycling history it was announced by Andrew Messick, president, AEG Sports, presenter of the race, at a press conference today.
This is something that professional bodybuilding probably does not want.
