Mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Justin Levens and his wife Sarah McLean-Levens were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide on Wednesday, December 17, 2009. An autopsy was conducted on Thursday but investigators are still awaiting the results of toxicology tests to determine if the deceased had used any drugs prior to their deaths. Yet, bloggers and writers are jumping on the steroid bandwagon blaming anabolic steroids as a potential culprit for the tragedy (”Justin Levens Suspected of Killing Wife and Himself,” December 18).
Wrestling is a sport that has brutal action, and often an even more brutal aftermath for fighters. Mixed martial arts, which is becoming a powerful alternative to wrestling, appears to be no different. Drugs, steroids and a bad mental state outside the ring may be just as prominent in mixed martial arts. That may have been the case for former competitor Justin Levens, who is suspected to have killed himself after killing his wife.
A few have approached the Levens murder-suicide tragedy without such steroid hysterics. Fightlinker thinks people need to stop focusing so much on steroids while ignoring painkillers which are a “bigger elephant in the room” (”Stop trying to disown Justin Levens,” December 19).
Levens was a mixed martial artist who was hooked on painkillers. Pain med addiction is a serious problem in our sport, and it’s only getting worse. What happened with Levens was obviously a rare and horrible outcome, and it’s not like we’re expecting James Irvin and Joe Riggs to go off like ticking time bombs any second now. But we might want to maybe consider looking into the painkiller issue. I don’t know what can be done, but at this point they’re a bigger elephant in the room than steroids are.
Sherdog makes note of several events that point to potential painkiller use/abuse by Justin Leven aka “The Executioner” Read more
![](http://www.mesomorphosis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/life-roid-rage.jpg "NBC television series \")
The NBC television series “Life” creatively demonized anabolic steroids in the plotline of the recent episode entitled “Everything… All the Time.” They producers of “Life” blamed anabolic steroids for murder, roid rage, a suicide attempt, steroid overdose, and bleeding from the eyes in this bit of anti-steroid propaganda. The “roid rage” scene rivaled and arguably surpassed the classic “Ben Affleck Roid Rage After School Special” in its imaginative, fanciful and fictional portrayal of roid rage. This is an amazing feat in and of itself.
The steroid hysteria also incorporated an attack on physicians who prescribe steroids, health clubs and gyms, and bodybuilders who use steroids; the “Life” episode featured a doctor who was a “board certified physician” that owned “Flex T Gym” and prescribed steroids to its members (but referred to members as “clients” so that their medical records would be covered by “doctor-client confidentiality”)!
Anti-steroid crusaders will find an agreeable ending consistent with their agenda; the roid-raging steroid user (Jeff Soskin playing Marty Hawkins) dies from a “massive steroid overdose” as the result of a “steroid hot shot” with twenty times the potency of the average steroid dose!
This is one of the most uninformed depictions of anabolic steroids and so-called roid rage in television history rivaling Ben Affleck in ‘A Body to Die For: The Aaron Henry Story’ and Peter Billingsley in ‘The Fourth Man’ in its degree of absurdity. Read more
David Jacobs, the convicted steroid dealer that murdered his ex-girlfriend and then committed suicide, continues to take people down posthumously. The lawyer for NFL football player Ryan Fowler, a linebacker for the Tennessee Titans, suspects his client faces suspension based on a so-called non-analytical positive arising from information provide by David Jacobs to the NFL. Jacobs previously publicly identified former Dallas Cowboys football player Matt Lehr as purchaser of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.
I spoke with Bob Johnson of Posedown Magazine Saturday night at the 2008 NPC Lone Star Classic in Plano, Texas; he told me Jacobs behavior and actions were not a big surprise. Last night, Johnson told Jason Trahan of the Dallas Morning News that he is not surprised that Jacobs is hurting people in death as he did in life (”Plano steroids trafficker told newspaper he supplied Cowboys player,” June 10).
“I don’t believe anything Jacobs said. He died the way he lived his life – always taking somebody down with him.”
There is the likely possibility that David Jacobs could take down several more people posthumously. Before he died, he identified many names of individuals who allegedly purchased anabolic steroids from him; he shared the information with prosecutors, journalists, bloggers, and others who asked him about his involvement in steroid distribution. Earlier this year, Jacobs had told the Dallas Morning News that he sold anabolic steroids to football player Ryan Fowler.
Mr. Jacobs spoke to The News about his dealings with Mr. Fowler with the understanding that some details not be immediately published. After his death and after Mr. Fowler’s attorney linked the league’s action to Mr. Jacobs, The News decided to make some of the information public.
Mr. Jacobs said that with his help, Mr. Fowler, who played in Dallas from 2004 to 2006, went from making $400,000 as a Cowboy to signing a four-year, $11.5 million contract with the Titans, where he was a starting linebacker last season.
“After he got his big contract, he came back, knocked on my door and hugged me,” Mr. Jacobs said. “He said, thanks, I just got $12 million.”
Mr. Jacobs also divulged this information to federal prosecutors over the last year.
In addition, he turned over text messages, e-mails and other evidence of his dealings with Mr. Fowler and other players to the NFL in recent weeks in an attempt to “clean up” the game.
Jacobs showed no reluctance dropping names of “steroid customers” when I interviewed him earlier this year. There is no reason to suspect that he did not share the same information with prosecutors.
They asked me about a few people. They asked me about ********* and they ask me about *********. And for obvious reasons, I was in magazines and videos with them and everything like that so there was a very clear link and association. And they ask me straight up, “Has ********* ever been involved in distributing steroids?” And I said absolutely not, not in any way. As a matter of fact, he has been very adamant and not ever being involved in any of it. He has a good contract, he has an export business, and he has his own gym. The guy wouldn’t even need to think about doing anything like that. He is making great money on his own. Then they just said ‘ok.’ And that was the first and last time they ever asked about him.
[...]
If I were to tell them every single person that I sold steroids to, then half the IFBB would go away. That would just be ridiculous. That’s why people who know me and know who are my friends are and who I have been involved with, that’s why they still stand by me and say thanks for being strong and being cool because… As you can see ********** hasn’t been arrested. As you can see, ********* and *********, and all these other guys they haven’t been arrested. Nothing has happened to them.
[...]
I think ********* and ********* and ********* and ********* and all these guys who have not been brought in or anything like that attests to the fact that they are not targeting bodybuilders. And not only that, it attests to the fact that I didn’t do anything or say anything to get them in trouble.
The Dallas Morning News continues with their breaking coverage of murder-suicide of convicted steroid dealer David Jacobs and Amanda Jo Savell. Police arriving at the scene of the tragedy discovered significant quantities of anabolic steroids at the residence of David Jacobs (”Steroid trafficker David Jacobs’ death is ruled a suicide,” June 7)
Authorities seized from his Plano home 146 vials of steroids, a plastic jar containing suspected steroids and three jars of clear liquid believed to contain steroids, according to court records obtained Friday by The Dallas Morning News.
This evidence (especially if accompanied by a toxicology report confirming recent steroid use by Jacobs) will set the stage for the media to sensationalize anabolic steroids as the drugs that “caused” the homicide and subsequent suicide much like they did in the Chris Benoit murder-suicide. Jacobs supposedly was mandated to submit to 5-6 drug tests every month; certainly federal agents would test for steroids.
I hope journalists researching this case will read the article “Chris Benoit Tragedy – Anabolic Steroids, Aggression & Violence” by Jack Darkes, PhD for a research-based review of steroids and aggression along with a warning about the danger singling out steroids as the culprit.
Ghastly acts such as the Benoit case are rare and, as science would predict, their association with AAS use is virtually non-existent. Many other characteristics are far more predictive of such events. It cannot be said with certainty whether AAS contributed to this tragedy or not. If they were involved, AAS were not a sole contributor but part of a larger set of characteristics and circumstances. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that AAS alone caused this behavior and they are obviously not necessary for such events to occur. The evidence does suggest that most AAS users do not become aggressive. Nonetheless, science will, at best, play a small part in society’s verdict on Benoit and AAS in this tale and it will be another instance where a drug is linked to a heinous act by association and, therefore, the untested popular notions that dominate the headlines today will be reinforced.
During my meeting with Don Hooton and Steve Smith of the Taylor Hooton Foundation yesterday, Mr. Hooton told me the breaking Jacobs/Savell case in his hometown of Plano kept him busy fielding calls seeking his reaction to the tragedy; it was particularly troubling for Hooton that one of the largest steroid dealers in the country lived only minutes from his house. (For the record, Mr. Hooton graciously ignored these calls during our 90-minute meeting which focused on finding common ground in efforts to minimize and prevent steroid use in adolescents.)
As far as the connection between steroids and the David Jacobs murder-suicide, I hope the media is sufficiently resourceful to also seek reaction from researchers like Dr. Jack Darkes at the University of South Florida who have a specialized academic interest in anabolic steroids and aggression to provide additional voices to the discussion.
The deaths of convicted steroid dealer David Jacobs and Amanda Savell have been officially ruled a murder suicide. But the Plano Police Department fucked up made a mistake by failing to pass the investigation over to an independent agency.
Why was this the obvious call?
It gives the appearance of a conflict of interest when Plano Police are investigating the suspicious death of a convicted steroid dealer who could have ratted out police officers who purchased steroids from him not only in the Plano Police Department but also the Dallas, Garland, Richardson and Arlington Police Departments; not only that, but he told practically everyone that Plano P.D. stole $4500 and human growth hormone from him during the April 2007 raid of his residence.
Tanya Eiserer (following up on Jason Trahan’s story) called them out on their conflict of interest in the Dallas Morning News, yet Plano P.D. couldn’t see any reason why they shouldn’t investigate (”Steroid dealer David Jacobs’ death ruled a suicide,” June 6).
“The Plano Police Department will handle this investigation as we do with all of the others,” Plano Officer Andrae Smith said Friday. “The bottom line is there’s no reason to conclude that we shouldn’t investigate this.”
Furthermore, the circumstances of the death, specifically the uncommon case of multiple gunshots in the Jacobs’ suicide, make the death somewhat suspicious even in the absence of a clear conflict of interest by police. The Dallas Morning News reports that David Jacobs “died of two self-inflicted gunshot wounds to his stomach and head.”
How often do suicide victims turn up with multiple gunshot wounds? Steroid Nation found a paper to answer this question - according to the American Journal of Forensic Medical Pathology (1981 Sep;2(3):239-42), approximately 1.6% of firearm suicides have multiple gunshot wounds.
Grits for Breakfast asks what are the odds that an steroid dealer selling steroids to a major police department in Texas AND a pharmacist selling steroids to a major police department in New York both committing suicide with multiple gunshot wounds before they testify against any police officers (”Informant who accused Metroplex police of steroid use turns up dead,” June 6).
A similar case involving NYPD in January caught my eye, and made me wonder just how deep the rabbit hole goes regarding steroid use in law enforcement. A pharmacist set to testify against NYPD police was found shot to death. As I pointed out previously, “his case was ruled a suicide, despite ‘gunshot wounds to the chest and head.’” Reacting to this news, I’d wondered “Have you ever heard of a suicide with two shots to the chest and the head? If the guy accusing Roger Clemens turned up dead under these circumstances, do you think there’d be a bigger media hoopla than the one-day story in passing that constituted coverage of this pharmacist’s death?”
Now we’ve seen informants accusing police of steroid use at two of the largest police departments in the country turn up shot to death within months of one another under suspicious circumstances before they could testify.
Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe both cases were suicides, or perhaps one or both were killed by non-police customers or suppliers. I’m not so much speculating about likelihoods as acknowledging a dark, unhappy, but seemingly inescapable hunch. I’d certainly feel better if the FBI or somebody outside Plano PD took over the task of investigating David Jacob’s’ death.
The Plano Police Department should have learned from the “suspicious-looking” suicide in the Lowen’s Pharmacy steroid case.
The family, friends and loved ones of the deceased need some sort of closure in this tragedy. But the poor judgment exercised in the investigation of this case by the Plano P.D. will only provide fodder for conspiracy theorists to keep this story alive indefinitely.
When Robert Sepe brutally murdered his girlfriend with a baseball bat, the media immediately speculated that anabolic steroids caused him to do it. The apparent reasoning was that the crime was so horrific that only an anabolic steroid user with roid rage would be capable of such violence. The “brutality of the crime” coupled with Sepe’s ownership of a supplement company apparently prompted the Journal News to write about a possible link between steroid abuse and murder.
New information suggests that Sepe was strongly against illegal and recreational drug use and likely even anti-steroid. He even abstained from alcohol and coffeee (”Cortlandt slay suspect told cops of ’surreal’ events,” April 29).
In discussing weighlifting, he went into great detail about how various vitamins and supplements could affect the body. He said he hated drugs and never used illegal substances such as cocaine and marijuana. He didn’t even drink coffee or alcohol, or eat meat, though he had once tried venison, he told them.
But he did admit to using prescription drugs Elavil and Zoloft to treat psychopathology and an undisclosed blood pressure medication.
During a five hour standoff, he started out by lying about his identify and eventually opened up and talked about some serious problems he said he was having. He told police he had been suffering from panic attacks, depression and insomnia in recent months, and that he was taking two psychotropic medications, Elavil and Zoloft, along with medicine to control high blood pressure; he mentioned he had one pill in his pocket. He claimed the various drugs were “contradicting each other” and that his psychologists and internists “didn’t know what each other was prescribing.”
Zoloft and roid rage? It doesn’t quite have the same sensationalistic impact as steroid roid rage; it is kind like prednisone roid rage. Yet there are various websites demonizing Zoloft suggesting it can cause normal invidividuals to turn into “homicidal maniacs“!
It seems that there is a natural tendency to ascribe a single cause for senseless events like suicide and murder. Anabolic steroids are the demon of choice in such events irrespective of the actual potential causes of such behavior. But if the media wants to blame steroids for the violent crime of Robert Sepe, the actual use of anabolic steroids by the perpetrator is a prerequisite for this unsubstantiated claim. This is unfortunate for the anti-steroid crusaders seeking to capitalize on the current trend of steroid hysteria in the media and popular culture.
The Salem Statesman-Journal reports the cause of death of former IFBB pro bodybuilder Shelley Beattie (”Farewell to one who beat so many obstacles,” March 10):
Shelley Beattie was an inspiration to the deaf community, overcoming her disability to become a professional bodybuilder, a television personality and a competitive sailor.
“The only thing I can’t do is hear,” she used to say.
Last month she discovered one other thing she couldn’t do: live with bipolar disorder. While under a doctor’s care during a six-week stay at a psychiatric hospital, she took her own life.
Shelley was extremely popular as a person, a female bodybuilder, an athlete, and an American Gladiator as can be seen by the comments to the original announcment of her death.
Our condolences to her parents, Jack Beattie and Laura Mitchell, and her life partner, Julie Moisa.
The Los Angeles Police Department discovered former bodybuilding cosmetic surgeon Bruce Nadler, MD and his wife dead as the result of gunshot wounds on Monday, February 4, 2008. Authorities believe it is an apparent murder-suicide perpetrated by Bruce Nadler.
Bruce Nadler called himself the “world’s strongest plastic surgeon.” He was probably the best known cosmetic surgeon catering to amateur and professional bodybuilders. He had performed over 700 gynecomastia surgeries in his career; “gyno” is a side effect of anabolic steroid use when antiaromatase and/or estrogen antagonists are not use concurrently.
After retiring from the practice of medicine in August 2005, Dr. Nadler, who called himself “the world’s strongest plastic surgeon,” wrote the “The Nip Tuck Workout: Exercise through the Eyes of a Plastic Surgeon” and subsequently moved with his wife to Los Angeles to reinvent himself in a new career as personal trainer with the opening of Nip Tuck Fitness LA in Beverly Hills.
Retired plastic surgeon and certified personal trainer Bruce J. Nadler M.D. has brought his Plastic Synergy training system to Los Angeles. As stated in his book, “The Nip Tuck Workout – Exercise through the Eyes of a Plastic Surgeon,” Dr. Nadler has created an exercise program based on the plastic surgical principles of proportion and symmetry. It combines careful analysis with an individualized exercise prescription.
Bruce Nadler, MD retired after the New York State Board of Professional Medical Conduct charged him with 29 specifications of professional misconduct in thirteen patients according to public records. Rather than fight the charges, Nadler submitted and consent agreement and voluntarily relinquished his medical license.
The specifications of professional misconduct were primarily related to prescribing a variety of anabolic steroids, growth hormone and ancillary medications used by bodybuilders including Saizen, Serostim, Genotropin, Androgel, Depo Testosterone, Delatestryl, Deca Durabolin, testosterone cypionate, testosterone enanthate, Nolvadex, Proscar, Clomid, tamoxifen, Arimidex, Finasteride and Viagra. In each case, he was accused of the following:
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Failure to obtain and/or note an adequate and complete medical history and/or history of current complaint from patient.
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Failure to perform and/or note a complete and appropriate physical examination of patient.
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Failure to obtain and/or note appropriate and medically indicated laboratory studies on patient including: prolactin, TSH, LH, hepatic and renal function, and assays for estrogen levels and HCG.
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Failure to properly diagnose patient’s condition and/or rule out underlying disorders.
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Inappropriately and without medical idnication and/or justification, prescribing and/or maintaining patient on various medications.
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Failure to maintain a medical record for patient in accordance with accepted medical standards which accurately reflects his care and treatment of the patient.
Bruce Nadler’s beliefs regarding anabolic steroids and bodybuilding were controversial for physician. He explained his own steroid use and his willingness to prescribe steroids and growth hormone to his patients in an interview with Testosterone Nation:
I’m my own test laboratory in that respect because, in the last two years, I’ve been taking 6 to 8 IUs a week of growth hormone, and I alternate between 200 mg a week of deca and 200 mg of testosterone cypionate the next week. Instead of going super physiological, I believe in just going to maximum natural levels to that of a man in his twenties. In this way, there are no side effects.
Nadler was also critical of the steroid hysteria in the U.S. and the political posturing surrounding anabolic steroids:
I’ve always felt that politicians always have to make the majority of the electorate think that they’re doing something? So they inconvenience a small, unimportant group, like bodybuilders. They have no idea what they’re talking about. Somebody hands them a speech, and they go! They took something that could have been done safely and sent it to the black market and all of the inherent dangers that go along with dealing with that element. Will they ever be legal again? I hope so.
The co-owner of Lowen’s Pharmacy has apparently died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head; New York Police Department (NYPD) investigators maintain it was a suicide even though the victim was also shot in the chest.
Six NYPD police officers, most of whom worked out at Dolphin Fitness near Lowen’s, have been under instensive internal affairs investigations for improperly obtaining anabolic steroids from Lowen’s Pharmacy. Lowen’s Pharmacy has been raided on two separate occasions by narcotics officers working with the office of New York’s Albany District Attorney David Soares. These raids resulted in the seizure of over $7 million worth of growth hormone from China as well as $200,000 worth of various anabolic steroids, including testosterone, nandrolone and stanozolol; records seized showed that about $30 million in steroids and growth hormone were funneled through “longevity clinics” in Florida.
Lowen’s Pharmacy has ties to the Gambino crime family. Julius Nasso, Jr. is a part owner of Lowen’s Pharmacy; his father owns the building where Lowen’s is located at the corner of Bayshore Drive and 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn. The father of Julius Nasso, Jr. was a former pharmacist turned movie producer who served prison time for conspiring with the Gambino family to extort money from actor Steven Segal; the uncle of Nasso, Jr. owns a drug company and was sentenced for labor racketeering.
The San Diego Union-Tribune published a very interesting article about the side effects that occur when anabolic steroids are discontinued at the end of a cycle. The writer, Mark Zeigler, is of course talking about the anabolic steroid induced hypogonadism (ASIH) that occurs when endogenous production of testosterone is suppressed.
Bodybuilders who use anabolic steroids are very familiar with this problem; it is widely recognized and widely discussed in the bodybuilding community. Various doctors, writers and bodybuilders have offered possible solutions. It is accepted within many bodybuilding circles that ASIH can be largely minimized if not completely avoided.
But nowhere in the article is their any suggestion that the ASIH can be avoided or treated. It is not necessarily the fault of the author; the medical profession does not recognize the treatment of ASIH; the government does not recognize treatment of ASIH. Consequently they do not approve of treatment for the side effects related to the cessation of anabolic steroids.
This just baffles me! Why would the side effects that come along with stopping steroid use, especially if they are as dangerous as claimed, be left untreated especially if that treatment is readily available? I mean it is no secret that Taylor Hooton’s parents and doctors took him off of anabolic steroids and within 6 weeks he committed suicide. Texas has passed legislation claiming “clinical depression [occurs] when steroid use is stopped.” Kirk Brower, M.D. has told Congress during the baseball hearings that “depressive episodes and suicide attempts are most likely to occur within three months of stopping AAS use.”
If there is a treatment to prevent or eliminate the side effects associated with cessation of anabolic steroids, it should be promoted and encouraged by the government and medical community. But why isn’t it?
(1) The steroid prohibition movement is about morality and not about health. To paraphrase Radley Balko, it is better to let a steroid user suffer (and even die) rather than administer a medical treatment that could eliminate steroid side effects and remove threat of suicide. The war against steroids has taken on the characteristics of the overarching war on drugs. Balko explains the drug policy:
This is the mentality of your modern drug warrior. We’re fighting drug use not because it’s dangerous or harmful, but because they believe drug use is, in and of itself, immoral.
Today’s drug war isn’t about saving lives, it’s about saving souls.
(2) If the side effects of steroids are successfully treated, it would encourage steroid users to continue using steroids. This is probably correct, but is that a worse outcome than making steroid users suffer for making a supposedly immoral choice? The Office Of National Drug Control Policy has a strong moral philosophy and opposition to harm reduction when it comes to drug use.
These so-called “harm reduction” strategies are poor public policy because their underlying philosophy involves giving up on those who can successfully recover from drug addiction.
Let’s abandon this morality play and truly focus on the health consequences of anabolic steroid use.
