International and domestic domain name registrars (DNR) have taken down numerous anabolic steroid websites over the past 30 days, most recently Advanced-Stealth.com and Steroids-Pharmacy.com on November 14, 2008. The DNR takedowns were NOT the result of any law enforcement or government regulatory action; the DNRs apparently initiated the action on their own after pressure from organizations like LegitScript. LegitScript announced the takedowns of the steroid pharmacies as two of over 500 affected websites in the “largest internet pharmacy shutdown in history” (”LegitScript Terminates Nearly 500 Rogue Internet Pharmacies and Steroid Websites,” November 14).
Steroids-Pharmacy.com and Advanced-Stealth.com, which sold anabolic steroids, Schedule III Controlled Substances, without requiring a prescription, from overseas.
Steroids-Pharmacy.com and Advanced-Stealth.com have been two of the biggest supporters of U.S. steroid law reform and harm reduction-based steroid education.
The steroid website domains were registered through India Access, an India-based reseller of registration domain services from ICANN-accredited Public Domain Registry.
Three individuals who purchased anabolic steroids with a prescription for their own personal use were indicted on steroid possession charges. Cleveland Police Lieutenant Anthony Tuleta, former firefighter Craig Romey and former EMS paramedic Angel Otero purchased various anabolic steroids and human growth hormone with prescriptions obtained over the Internet from California-based physician Ramon Scruggs via the New Hope Med website. A Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted Tuleta, Romey and Otero on multiple drug (steroid) possession charges for illegally purchasing steroids for bodybuilding purposes (”Cleveland cop, firefighter and paramedic charged in steroid probe,” November 10).
Police Lt. Anthony Tuleta, 50, former firefighter Craig Romey, 38, and former EMS paramedic Angel Otero, 41, received prescriptions over the Internet between January 2003 and June 2007 from Dr. Ramon Scruggs of Santa Ana, Calif., prosecutors said. Scruggs faces 13 charges for drug trafficking.
Prosecutors have rarely pursued cases against individual steroid users who obtained steroids with a doctor’s prescription. Successful prosecution would require successfully defining and proving legally ambigous issues like what constitutes a “valid medical prescription,” “legitimate medical purpose,” and “doctor-patient relationship.” Only recently has legislation (i.e. Ryan Haight Act) been introduced to clarify such definitions. Perhaps prosecutors are now emboldened to take on such cases now that the Act has passed and will be enacted in April 2009 Read more
