Travis Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), urged the country’s attorneys general to start suing supplement companies using consumer protection laws. Tygart made his comments at the 2009 National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) summer conference on June 17, 2009 in Colorado Springs. Tygart wants the attorneys general to take action at the state level to further the USADA’s agenda of preventing competitive athletes from using dietary supplements that are prohibited by their respective sports and/or the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) (”USADA chief urges states to act on supplements,” June 19).
“If consumers could run the land, I think federal regulations would change,” Tygart said. “The political reality is that, unfortunately, we have to assume they’re not going to change. But that doesn’t deter you (states) from taking action.” [...]
For the states, however, this is a relatively new issue. If they make a move, they’ll probably have to turn to consumer-protection statutes. They could also look at recovering expenses for government-paid health care costs for treatment of people who get sick from supplement use, much the way they did in lawsuits against tobacco companies.
Rick Collins and Alan Feldstein, representing the law firm Collins, McDonald and Gann, identified state attorneys general use of consumer protection laws as a potentially serious “minefield” facing supplement companies at the International Society of Sports Nutrition Conference (ISSN) on June 15, 2009. Sports nutrition companies who focus on products aimed at improving performance are particularly vulnerable to such state attorneys general actions. Read more
Defense attorney Thomas Lesser of Lesser, Newman & Nasser proved that federal prosecutors do not have a monopoly on anabolic steroid misinformation and falsehoods. Lesser filed a sentencing memorandum in Massachusetts federal court requesting one year probation for his client who had previously pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges. Lesser falsely characterized the typical steroid user as a massive consumer of ridiculous amounts of anabolic steroids (”Sentencing Memorandum USA v. Shooltz,” March 19, 2009).
“A typical steroid user would use one gram of testosterone per day, which he would combine with other steroids, as well as human growth hormone. Over a ten-week period, 140 grams of steroids would be used, 70 grams of testosterone and a similar quantity of other steroids. Body builders would use more.”
In other words, Lesser expected the court to believe that the typical steroid cycle involved the equivalent of (1) 7,000mg testosterone esters per week; (2) 3,500mg Deca Durabolin per week; (3) 500mg Dianabol per day; and (4) human growth hormone (HGH). Lesser claimed that bodybuilders used even greater quantities of steroids. Read more
Kenneth Hebert and his common-law wife Leticia Zamora, owners of TexStar Labs and Phalco Labs, faced United States District Judge David Hittner for sentencing on January 28, 2009. Hebert was senteced to four years imprisonment (or double the term of imprisonment advocated by prosecutors) whereas Zamora withdrew her guilty plea after Judge Hittner denied her probation deal with the government (”Pearland man gets prison for at-home steroid factory,” January 28).
A Pearland man who ran a major anabolic steroid factory in his house was sentenced to four years in federal prison on Wednesday, but his wife withdrew her guilty plea and opted to go to trial.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner sentenced Kenneth Hebert to about twice what prosecutor Peter Mason had suggested for distributing the performance-enhancing drug, made of ingredients from China.
Hebert and Zamora both pleaded guilty to their respective roles in the illegal operation of a large-scale underground anabolic steroid laboratory out of their Houston-area home. The couple manufactured raw steroid powder into oral and injectable steroid products that were distributed under the TexStar Labs and Phalco Labs label. The steroid case represented one of the largest UGL steroid busts resulting from Operation Raw Deal.
The couple decided to spend their available funds to hire an attorney from the Montalvo Law Firm to represent Leticia Zamora and provide her with the best opportunity to avoid prison time so that she could raise the couple’s two young children, ages five and seven; Kenneth Hebert was represented by a federal public defender.
Brandon Millay, Associate Professor of Electronics at Owensboro Community and Technical College, was indicted on federal steroid distribution charges on December 2, 2008. Millay’s involvement with the “steroid subculture” was well-known; he used his real name “bmillay” as his username on various steroid and bodybuilding forums and openly advertised the fact that he was a college professor with expertise in electronic and experience with military and law enforcement electronic devices (”Grand Jury Indicts Four Owensboro Men On Steroid Distribution Charges,” December 4).
The U.S. Attorney of Western Kentucky says Brandon Millay, 41; Kevin Revelette, 37; Keith Evans, 37; and Jimmie Garrison, 41, were all indicted on Wednesday on charges of conspiring to distribute anabolic steroids. The indictment alleges that the four men tried to distribute the steroids between October 2006 and April 2008.
Brandon Millay was the subject of a steroid bust on or about April 1, 2008. Rumors of Millay’s bust ensued shortly thereafter with speculation about the interrelationship between busts of steroid sources that were in close contact with Millay, such as CPT and Kong. Millay was the first to report the steroid bust involving Scott Haines of UGL Diamond Labs in Nashville, Tennessee. Millay’s proximity to several steroid bust made several members suspicious. Not surprisingly, it was alleged by several people on the forums that bmillay became a cooperating informant for federal and/or state investigators. Millay strongly denied these allegations (”anyone see Bmillay’s post on outlaw??,” April 27).
i have not and will not ever hurt anyone
please let it die
rumors are bad and things do not work like some of you think
yes i have had my share of troubles , but they are mine not yours , and sometimes things aren’t as bad as they seem
Brandon Millay posted prolificly on various forums sharing information about his own steroid use, recommendations on steroid cycling, and methods for thwarting law enforcement efforts targeted at steroid users.
Preston Williams, Washington Post high school sports columnist, recommends steroid education involving coaches, parents and truthful steroid documentaries like “Bigger Stronger Faster*” as the best way to address teen steroid use in high schools. Williams questions the effectiveness of costly high school steroid testing programs “whose merits are spotty” with “swing-and-miss results.”
In his weekly column about high school sports, Williams applauds the sensible efforts by physician Ben Pearl (Arlington Foot & Ankle Center), physical education teacher and former NFL player Rocky Belk (Arlington Public Schools), and physical therapy and sports medicine instructor Sheila Napala (Arlington Career Center) to combat anabolic steroid use in high schools (”Straight Talk Is the Best Deterrent to Steroid Use,” November 6).
So the best way, financially and otherwise, to ward off steroid use among teen athletes is probably through parents and coaches — and the old-fashioned approach that Arlington County physical education teacher Rocky Belk and Arlington physician Ben Pearl took last week.
They met with about 60 high school students from Sheila Napala’s physical therapy and sports medicine classes at the Arlington Career Center to discuss steroids and the 2008 documentary the students had watched, “Bigger Stronger Faster*.”
Steroid education approaches involving scare tactics, steroid hysteria and steroid demonization have been largely ineffective. It is refreshing to see prominent educators in the community taking an honest and straightforward approach to the topic of anabolic steroid use by providing truthful information to students. Read more
Rick Collins, leading steroid legal expert from Collins, McDonald & Gann, has released an analysis of the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008 that doubles maximum steroid trafficking sentences. President Bush signed the legislation on October 15, 2008 to “put an end to the illegal sale of highly addictive prescription drugs on the Internet” to “ensure a safer future for our children.”
The legislation amends the Controlled Substances Act to address issues related to internet pharmacies, internet pharmacy prescriptions and the dispensing of controlled substances via the Internet. Even though, the legislation’s namesake was a teenager who overdosed on Vicodin (and not anabolic steroids), the Act represents a continuation in the “war on steroid trafficking.”
Rick Collins specifically looks at the far-reaching consequences for anabolic steroid trafficking cases (”Maximum Steroid Trafficking Sentences to Double,” October 28). Read more
Advocates of steroid law reform are very disappointed that Democratic presidential candidate Barrack Obama selected Senator Joseph Biden as his vice presidential nominee. Senator Biden was the chief architect of the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990 that criminalized the possession of anabolic steroids for non-medical purposes. Biden also wrote the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004 which opened the door for significantly harsher penalties for steroid possession and steroid distribution; this has resulted in the increased prosecution of steroid users over the past few years who are treated as dangerous criminals with the worst penalties for the non-medical use of steroids in history. Senator Biden has been on his anti-steroid crusade for almost two decades.
Steroid law expert Rick Collins revealed in testimony to the United States Sentencing Commission that the typical non-medical steroid users has been misrepresented to the public and to legislators.
A scene examining anabolic steroids and roid rage that was deleted from the steroid documentary “Bigger Stronger Faster*” has been posted on Youtube. Roid rage is addressed by various experts including Rick Collins, William Llewellyn, John Romano and Harrison Pope.
The number of interesting clips about steroids that were deleted from the final production of Bigger Stronger Faster is amazing. Magnolia Pictures has released fascinating deleted clips on roid rage, steroids for HIV and Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler discussing steroids. The movie is great but much of the unused footage is excellent as well. I hope that the DVD release includes number bonus features including unedited interviews with many of the steroid experts featured (and not featured) in the movie.
I’ve been staying in touch with director Chris Bell since I first learned he was making a steroid documentary. I have talked to several of the “stars” of the movie such as William Llewellyn, Rick Collins, and John Romano regarding their interviews and their appearances in “Bigger Stronger Faster.” I have interviewed Chris about the steroid documentary just before its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. All indicators suggest it will be a well-received and perhaps even a commercial success. Hopefully, it will come to a theater near you soon. If you are not fortunate enough to see the movie at Sundance, please enjoy the following movie posters for the steroid documentary, “Bigger Stronger Faster*,” in the meantime.
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!
