A long-anticipated federal indictment against Applied Pharmacy Services (APS) on charges of conspiracy and distribution of anabolic steroids was unsealed by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama in Mobile. The massive 198-count federal indictment identifies twelve individuals as part of the Applied Pharmacy Services steroid distribution network including pharmacy owners and pharmacists, and doctors and businessmen who profited from customer referrals to APS. Six co-conspirators in the APS steroid distribution network were previously indicted in separate cases (”Pharmacy owners, others are charged in steroids case,” January 22).
“Each of the pharmacy owners and pharmacists named in the indictment are charged with prescribing and selling veterinary steroids, approved for cattle and livestock only, to humans,” U.S. Attorney Deborah Rhodes said in a prepared statement. “We will continue to work with the DEA, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and the Alabama Board of Pharmacy to ensure that medical professionals who abuse their position of trust are held accountable.”
The United States Attorney’s Office in Mobile showed a considerable penchant for political grandstanding against steroids in the APS indictment. U.S. Attorney Deborah Rhodes and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Donna Dobbins and Maria Murphy felt compelled to use inflammatory language in the indictment that was seemingly more reflective of personal anti-steroid bias than steroid law.
The prosecutors did not miss an opportunity to inject the label of “steroid user” to indicted individuals which served no other purpose than cheap attempts to further demonize the invididual; rather than restrict language such that it conformed to legally-defined crimes, prosecutors repeatedly identified defendants as “steroid dealers.” Read more
