Following the revelation of an international doping scandal centered in Austria, the Austrian government has announced legislation that will criminalize mere possession of anabolic steroid and/or other performance enhancing drugs. Previously, there was no punishment for possession of steroids (”Austria to tighten anti-doping law,” April 18).
Legislation to tighten Austria’s anti-doping laws by criminalising possession of performance-enhancing substances are to be unveiled this summer, the government announced on Friday.
According to proposals to be unveiled in early July, it will be a criminal offence to be found in possession of doping substances above a certain quantity, said Roland Achatz, spokesperson for sports secretary Reinhold Lopatka.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis pledged yesterday to tighten the country’s anti-doping laws in a bid to stamp out illegal substance abuse among athletes.
”A special committee was formed… to consider more stringent administrative and criminal sanctions against those who use, provide and market banned substances,” Karamanlis told Parliament.
The “internationalization of steroid law” predicted by Philip Sweitzer is becoming a reality.
The internationalized, fascistic nature of current steroid law enforcement policy thus emerges. Hegemony is its stated goal, that U.S. policy must be tantamount to international policy: all nations must conform to the legal standard of the United States. We must all think alike… The “internationalization” of steroid law, however, is also troubling for its politicization and heavy-handed reliance on dishonest notions of morality, cheating, and “protecting our children,” rather than science…
A full analysis of the internationalization of steroid law by Sweitzer can be found in “AAS Across the Atlantic: The “Americanization” and Politicization of International Steroid Law” (appearing on MESO-Rx this month).
Brendan Lyons and the Albany Times-Union have received a lot of praise and acclaim for their “investigative journalism” in the coverage of the Signature Pharmacy steroid distribution scandal. Admittedly, they do a throrough job of covering the Albany-based investigation initiated by District Attorney David Soares. But the reporting is anything but well-balanced serving as little more than a public relations branch of the Albany County District Attorney’s Office.
I do not understand how becoming the bedfellow of a publicity-seeking prosecutor David Soares and the unofficial Albany County District Attorney Office PR agent qualifies as “investigative reporting.” Does this represent the current state of what is valued in investigative journalism? (”Investigative journalism still thriving in Albany,” April 2)
So how did this lone journalist from a mid-sized, out-of-state paper beat all the local and national powerhouses on such a major story? And perhaps more importantly, why did he bother?
The answer lies in the origins of the 2006 steroid case, which actually began in the Albany County District Attorney’s Office — a place Lyons knows well from years of crime reporting for the TU. As the investigation led to Florida and several other states, Lyons was well-positioned to get advance word of the raid. Since then, he has broken multiple follows, including a report in January revealing that numerous stars, from singers Mary J. Blige and 50 Cent to Danny Bonaduce, were linked to the pharmacy.
Apparently making deals to aggressively promote the local district attorney is the key to investigative reporting.
“I approached the DA, and he put me off for a while,” Lyons says. “Then he explained that they were in the throes of a multi-state investigation that would resonate from that office.”
Further digging found that the Orlando site was next. “I started working sources to find out as much as I could,” he says. “I found out that some celebrity athletes were involved.” Names such as boxer Evander Holyfield arose, and Lyons learned a big raid was in the works. But he did not report it, as investigators requested he hold off.
Lyons deludes himself into believing he was involved in serious investigative journalism by fancying himself as a real journalist surrounded by danger in a hostile military environment covering a significant military operation. As Lyons tells the story, coverage of the war on steroids is analagous to the war on terrorism in many ways.
“I thought it was no different than being embedded with a military unit that was going to raid Kirkuk tomorrow,” Lyons says. “The pitch was, ‘If you publish it, they could potentially destroy records and computer files.’” Then Lyons learned that Sports Illustrated was also on the story. “I knew they were being given the same request to hold off,” he recalls. “And the clock was ticking.
“We knew some things and could have moderately reported it,” Port adds. “But if we had done it, we would have ruined their investigative plans, and they made a case that was true. The deal was, when it happened, we would report the heck out of it.”
Thus, Brendan Lyons and the Albany Times-Union entered into a deal with District Attorney David Soares that has greatly benefitted both parties. The seemingly quid pro quo relationship has worked well from the beginning when prosecutor Soares invited Brendan Lyons and a Times-Union photographer to take lots of pictures during a raid that was clearly unnecessary and designed only as a photo op and publish “the heck out of it” (”Soares, Steroids and Albany,” March 2, 2007).
The Florida defense attorney said in a video clip that the suspects were aware of the investigation and offered several times to turn themselves in. David rejected their offer because he wanted to fly down to Florida “…with a camera crew.” Now we are stuck not only with the cost of David’s trip but also with the transportation costs of bringing the suspects up to Albany. In addition to two assistants, David invited a Times Union reporter and photographer on these out of state raids. This doesn’t look good and it appears that David is playing for publicity.
It is my opinion that we need much higher standards for what qualifies as investigative journalism.
The sums of money Arnold was making were “very low,” she said. “I think we should have charged more.”
Pat confirmed via email that he only made $15-20 thousand over the course of the THREE YEARS he provided tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) and norbolethone to elite athletes while working with Victor Conte. The government calls a $5,000 a year operation a major steroid bust?!
While the BALCO steroid bust involving undetectable performance enhancing drugs was a big deal to Pat Arnold et al and the athletes involved, the dismantling of BALCO had practically no direct impact on the commercial trade of anabolic steroids on the black market. However, the role of the BALCO scandal as the impetus for the current steroid hysteria can not be underestimated.
Prosecutors have re-opened the case of anti-aging doctor Ramon Scruggs in an effort to find more baseball players who have used anabolic steroids (”Inquiry Into Doctor May Link Players to Drugs,” March 12). In June 2004, Dr. Scruggs was formally accused of prescribing steroids and ancillary medications without justification over the internet to patients who he did not physically examine. He settled his case with the State of California in August 2006.
In the settlement, Scruggs agreed the state could prove the charges and accepted a $4,800 fine and 35 months of probation: during that time he is required to have an outside monitor, take various courses and cease prescribing over the Internet. The settlement was agreed to in August 2006 and took effect in March 2007.
Dr. Scruggs prescribed steroids to professional baseball players Troy Glaus and Scott Schoeneweis in 2003 and 2004. In the fall of 2007, this information was leaked to the media by the office of District Attorney David Soares which is leading the investigation of the steroid scandal involving Signature Pharmacy.
As a result of the leak, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California want to revisit Scrugg’s case fishing for additional Major League Baseball players who use steroids.
Ramon Scruggs, M.D. is a physician who, prior to his legal troubles, openly worked with bodybuilders visiting his New Hope Med website; he felt that the best way for a physician to effectively supervise the health of a steroid-using bodybuilder was to medically monitor their steroid use and assure that bodybuilders avoided potentially dangerous black market sources of anabolic steroids.
Dr. Scruggs explained his criteria for prescribing steroids to bodybuilders in an interview with Jason Mueller of Anabolic Extreme in 1999-2000.
[T]hey have to do extensive blood work, they have to fill out a very detailed questionnaire, and they have to have a 40-minute to hour interview with me. That’s basically where we decide if someone can do this. Now, I’ll admit to you that as I do this, my criteria have relaxed. Before I would only do this with athletes or with ordinary citizens if they had a limitation, if they were hypogonadal, if they were on the low side of normal on their blood work. I’ve gradually relaxed that to include people who would be quote unquote normal. You’ve got to realize that virtually everything hormonal is considered normal by the establishment. They have virtually no ability to look at, let’s say the estrogen/progesterone levels for a woman, and testosterone for men and women, and say anything much about them at all because everybody from age 12 to age 90 is considered normal.
Dr. Scruggs felt that he was doing the right thing by monitoring and prescribing steroids to bodybuilders.
I feel like I’ve been led along a certain path in life and it’s almost as if I’m supposed to do certain things by fate. I would have, had it been my choice, done things differently from how they’ve actually happened. But I accept that there are no mistakes, which God has us do the things He would have us do, despite what our little self may want, and I feel directed. So yes, I am concerned about it, but at the same time, I know I’m right! I feel very comfortable in the choices I’ve made and the reason for those choices. I know that I’m helping people far more than I’m hurting them. If you want to know the truth, I don’t like taking 22 or 23 year-old and putting them on steroids, it makes me nervous. Yet, I’d rather have them come to me and manage their steroid use, and then have them do it on their own.
Ramon Scruggs has and continues to pay a substantial penalty for having worked with bodybuilders in this capacity, including a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing in October 2005.
But over a year later, the Office of the Albany County District Attorney continues to prominently display Victor Martinez’ name and picture on its website in a diagram of Operation Which Doctor. He is listed with 23 other individuals directly involved in the Signature Pharmacy and longevity clinic steroid scandals. However, I believe Victor is the only individual listed who has not been indicted. But no where is he identified as an “unindicted co-conspirator” allowing visitors to make their own uninformed assumptions.
Although a criminal defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty and has a Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial, these procedural protections do little to shield an individual who is identified as an unindicted co-conspirator. Because trials focus on the guilt or innocence of the indicted defendants, the practice of naming an individual as an unindicted co-conspirator in effect accuses the person of a crime without providing him or her with a forum for seeking vindication.Thus, the practice routinely results in injury to their reputations, lost employment opportunities,and a practical inability to run for public office…
[I]t is clear that publicly naming individuals as unindicted co-conspirators in a grand jury indictment violates their due process rights…
Consequently, unindicted co-conspirators are labeled as criminals — regardless of whether the defendants themselves are found guilty — because the trial does not focus, and is not designed to focus, on evidence presented against them.
Not only was bodybuilder Victor Martinez publicly named by prosecutor David Soares, but his name and photograph have been prominently featured on the government website at the heart of the investigation for over a year! This is particularly unfair to Victor Martinez.
