Have you ever tried to look at the controversy on athletes using  anabolic steroids another way? Jared Zeidman of Bleacher Report shares his views on the bias against players who had used performance enhancing drugs at one point or another. Zeidman is against the use of steroids and other illegal substances. According to him, though, you can’t tell how good an athlete is even when he does not use steroids. He cited Giambi who still performed well after he had stopped using steroids.

From Bleacher Report

With all of this said, I am adamantly against the use of steroids or any other illegal performance enhancing drug. But, I am also drinking a diet coke as I write this article, which is illegal if I am an Olympic athlete. With so many ridiculous drugs out there, and so many absurd regulations trying to control them, it is more than possible that some of these athletes really don’t know what is going in them.

And I know people are going to want to say, “Everyone should be responsible enough to know what they are putting in their bodies.” To those people, I ask the following:

Without looking at the box, right now, tell me all of the ingredients in a Sudafed tablet. Not just the drug itself, the substances that hold it in pill form, the shiny coating…

Sorry you’re out of time.

With no genuine way to establish the game play effect of performance enhancing drugs, I can’t help but think that some people are just looking for the placebo effect. They are now taking the special stuff.

Another example Zeidman cited was Shane Mosley during his fight with Antonio Margarito. Mosley had been involved in a scandal with Balco and claimed that he didn’t know he was taking steroids. Mosley was drug free during his fight with Margarito, and lo and behold, he defeated his opponent with a knockout. Everyone was thinking that Margarito would destroy him but Mosley’s abilities were top class and he didn’t need steroids to win. Maybe Mosley used to take steroids but now he is clean and he won his battle.

Ryan Shooltz, a former anabolic steroids dealer, is hoping that U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor will consider being more lenient towards his case. Shooltz was involved in an unfortunate incident back in 2004 when one of his friends died of methadone overdose in his Amherst apartment. At that time, police managed to seize several doses of anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, and other pills from his residences. It became a debate on whether the drugs confiscated were for business or just personal use.

From The Republican:

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin O’Regan told Ponsor Shooltz had a “cornucopia” of substances in his refrigerator and elsewhere and had cultivated an environment tolerant of drug use.

“This wasn’t a small case of a student who wanted to pump iron and … share steroids with his friends,” O’Regan said, adding that Shooltz imported raw steroid powder from China and sold  steroids over the Internet.

Lesser argued that although the pills were plentiful, they were really just enough for personal use by a half-dozen people.

“If you’re going to use steroids, you use 20 to 30 pills a day for a three-month course,” Lesser said, later focusing on Shooltz’s lack of a criminal record after a series of arrests in his late teens.

Shooltz, who pleaded guilty last October, told federal judge Ponsor that he has been a changed man since the event several years ago. Ponsor admitted to Thomas Lesser, the defense lawyer, that he was biased against Shooltz during the hearing. Since 2004, Shooltz has reinvented himself and now has a lucrative job, his own apartment, and a long-term girlfriend. Lesser also reasoned that Shooltz has had a clean criminal record since then.

For now, Ponsor is considering sentencing Shooltz to community confinement for six months. He had told defense to compile draft letters in support of Shooltz, something that he was expecting but was not done, so that he can review if the man had really changed. Ponsor is known for rarely giving second chances to defendants so that they can gather support.

Just recently, Jay McGwire has started his quest to look for a major publishing house to publish his proposal for a book entitled, “The McGwire Family Secret”. Jay is the younger brother of Mark McGwire, a Major League Baseball player who had been accused of using  anabolic steroids. While Mark chose not to comment on the issue when his teammate Jose Canseco claimed that he (Canseco) injected the former with steroids, Jay is the one who chose to speak up for his brother. Jay started using steroids after he managed to purchase some using money he got from his insurance. According to Jay, he introduced his brother to a steroid dealer after he won a bodybuilding competition back in May 1994. The steroid dealer explained everything to Mark and the baseball player had been using Deca Durabolin since.

From NY Daily News

Jay McGwire’s book proposal describes an idyllic childhood as the youngest of four boys in an exceptionally athletic family (another brother, Dan McGwire, was an NFL quarterback). The youngest McGwire says he stopped using steroids when he started feeling ill effects from the drugs – depression, high cholesterol, high blood pressure – and embraced religion. The McGwire brothers have had a falling-out and no longer speak to each other. Mark McGwire avoids the spotlight – he has repeatedly turned down Tony LaRussa’s invitations to attend St. Louis Cardinal training camps as a hitting instructor – but his younger brother says his story needs to be told.

“My bringing the truth to the surface about Mark is out of love,” Jay McGwire wrote. “I want Mark to live in truth to see the light, to come to repentance so he can live in freedom – which is the only way to live.”

Jay believes that if Mark would admit his mistake and apologize, he would be set free from the life of isolation that he chose. It makes you wonder if that would be enough to patch things up between the brothers

Last November 2008, Kenneth C. Anderson (also known as “Mr. Kennedy” in the world of professional wrestling) did an interview with Live Audio wrestling. Interestingly, his statement went against what Vince McMahon, chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment, had said during the latter’s interview in the Congress. Mr. Kennedy is one of the eleven WWE wrestlers that were suspended due to buying anabolic  steroids from an illegitimate online pharmacy, Signature Pharmacies. According to Mr. Kennedy’s latest interview, however, he never bought from the internet pharmacy and that he didn’t take steroids, at least during that time. It was his doctor who bought from Signature Pharmacy. He chose to keep quiet about it since he knew that saying something would just add fuel to the fire and that the media would most probably just misinterpret what he would say. According to some documents obtained between October 2006 and February 2007, Mr. Kennedy received shipments of somatropin, testosterone, and anastrozole.

This is contradictory to what McMahon said during his interview. The chairman released a statement saying that he personally asked each and every one of the wrestlers involved in the scandal if they had bought from Signature Pharmacy and all of them said “yes”. Some of them, however, didn’t use the steroids but that didn’t stop WWE from suspending them.

In an interview with Mike Mooneyham of The Post and Courier, Mr. Kennedy blames his doctor again and says that he had a medical reason on why he had to take steroids.

From WWE Headlines:

“I had a legitimate medical reason to have it,” Anderson told Mooneyham. “How was I supposed to know my doctor’s a quack? I was injured and had a legitimate reason. I tore my lat in 2005. I had surgery, went home and had a staph infection that I almost died from. I lost about 45 pounds in about three days. I had a legitimate medical reason for having it, however my name turned up on that list. Vince and the company’s hands were tied. They had to suspend me.” Anderson told Live Audio Wrestling he is aware of the pressure some of the newer wrestlers might have to take steroids. Anderson said taking steroids is really not necessary and that they should avoid using them.

This is probably how Tony La Russa, former manager of Mark McGwire feels right now. He has been on McGwire’s side amidst all the controversies he has been facing. McGwire was accused by a teammate, Jose Canseco, of injecting with anabolic steroids and the later had even personally administered a dose on the former. McGwire didn’t deny or affirm any of this since he believed that if he had said “no” no one would believe him, and if he had said “yes” then the law will get him.

La Russa feels that McGwire still has so much ahead of him. The manager thinks that his athlete has the makings of someone who should and could be put in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. La Russa has also been constantly inviting McGwire to participate in baseball events again, which the athlete consistently turned down.

La Russa defended McGwire’s character and integrity when voters for the Hall of Fame explained why they chose not to vote for the athlete.

From New York Times:

When voters receive their ballot, they are instructed to consider six elements of a player’s career, including character and integrity. Ken Rosenthal of FoxSsports.com echoed numerous writers by citing character and integrity in explaining why he was “just not comfortable” voting for McGwire now. Rosenthal said he was hopeful that more concrete information about what McGwire did or did not do would become available in the 12 years he might have left on the ballot.

“If it’s a question of what did he do to make himself stronger that wasn’t legal, and that’s kind of a character-and-integrity issue,” La Russa said. “If it’s a character-and-integrity issue, how many guys do we know who did what Mark did?”

La Russa was referring to how McGwire had two years and $30 million left on his contract when he retired after the 2001 season because he did not think he could be effective anymore. McGwire did not attempt to collect any of that money.

“There was no negotiation,” La Russa said. “No ‘Buy me out, I’ve got you for $30 million.’ Nothing. He said: ‘I don’t want to sign anything. I’m done.’ To me, that speaks about his character and his integrity.”

Unfortunately, La Russa really doesn’t have a say in the matter. He believes that it is up to McGwire to clear his name and to give it back the prestige it once had. If McGwire doesn’t do that, then he may not be able to change the negative opinions about him

It was just last week when news broke out that Texas has been reconsidering its 6 million dollar anabolic steroid testing program meant to provide random drug testing high school athletes of different sport. The main issue was that the first batch of results had low positive yields. Out of the 10,000 tested, only 4 were proved to be taking performance enhancing drugs. Because of this, Gov. Perry did conclude that steroids use doesn’t appear to be a problem among the youth of Texas and is considering scaling the program back. This has produced different violent reactions, such as one from Dr. Don Hooton, a Texas local.

Hooton is an advocate of the anti-steroids campaign after he lost his son in 2003. Hooton believes that the initial test results aren’t enough to conclude anything. The program was not meant to check if steroid use is a problem. In fact, Hooton even cited a survey of local high school students conducted by Texas A&M back in 2007. The survey suggests that approximately 2% of the students had use steroids. While only 4 of over a thousand tested positive in the recent drug test, Hooton believes that the low outcome is a result of the program itself. The steroid testing program is meant to serve as a deterrent and it has been just that to students. At present, the future of the program is still unsure.

From Dallas Morning News:

“I’m disappointed that stance is being taken before all the results from the field are in,” Hooton said. “I was under the impression we’d get at least one full year of results with football players before there was any recommendation.”

Perry made his remarks during a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. His office said the governor has not made any official recommendations for trimming the program.

Perry also said during the interview that he had no issue with leaving some degree of testing in place. But he added, “Do we need to test every kid in every school?”

Roger Clemens may not be the only All-Star baseball player to face the scandal of anabolic steroid use. According to prosecutor Daniel P. Butler, another player might be placed in the hot seat after Kirk Radomski faces the federal grand jury. Butler meant no other than Miguel Tejada of the Houston Astros Major League Baseball team. This isn’t the first controversy Tejada has been involved in. Just last year, Tejada was found to be lying about his age since he first joining the Major Leagues. On September 22, 2005, Tejada was one of the players identified by the Mitchell Report to be using and distributing steroids. FBI kept a close watch on Tejada since. Now that Clemens’ case is on the role, it seems like Tejada’s will follow soon after.

From Daily News:

Tejada has been the target of an FBI perjury investigation that was initiated in January 2008 at the request of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who was the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform when it held two hearings on the Mitchell Report on baseball and steroids last year. Waxman requested the investigation at the first hearing, on Jan. 15, 2008. Clemens testified on Feb. 13, 2008, at the committee’s second hearing on the report.

“It is often the case, for the sake of economy, for the Justice Department to name two or more defendants in a single indictment with respect to crimes that are related,” said former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart, now a partner at Manatt, Phelps and Phillips. “That seems to fit for Clemens and Tejada.”

Tejada has been the target of an FBI perjury investigation that was initiated in January 2008 at the request of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who was the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform when it held two hearings on the Mitchell Report on baseball and steroids last year. Waxman requested the investigation at the first hearing, on Jan. 15, 2008. Clemens testified on Feb. 13, 2008, at the committee’s second hearing on the report.

“It is often the case, for the sake of economy, for the Justice Department to name two or more defendants in a single indictment with respect to crimes that are related,” said former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart, now a partner at Manatt, Phelps and Phillips. “That seems to fit for Clemens and Tejada.” Unfortunately for Tejada, a former federal prosecutor by the name of William Callahan will be preparing a charge fit for the player. Callahan claims that the grand jury listens to the prosecutor and that the jury chose has been studying steroid use and such evidences for quite some time now. Even worse, Tejada’s lawyer won’t be able to participate or even be present in the proceedings. While all the forces seem to be against Tejada, all the player can do now is sit and wait for the verdict.

Good actors are the ones who live the role of the characters they play, not just act it. Does this mean that Mickey Rourke really did everything that wrestlers normally do such as workout 24/7, train, and maybe take anabolic steroids?

From SFGate.com:

Mickey Rourke has hit back at reports he took steroids in a bid to get in shape for the gritty new movie “The Wrestler,” insisting the media has gone too far with comments he made in a magazine interview.

The Golden Globe-winner hinted at the fact he’d taken steroids to bulk up for his role as battered fighter Randy “The Ram” Robinson in a recent interview with Men’s Journal.

It is no doubt that Rourke worked hard for his role. In fact, he had to train under ex-WWE wrestler Afa the Samoan. The hard work paid off since the actor took home the award for best actor from the 2008 Independent Spirit Award. The Wrestler also won the best film award at the Venice Film Festival.  His interview with Men’s Journal, however, caused a stir when he commented, “When I’m a wrestler, I behave like a wrestler.” This has started the rumor that Rourke had been using steroids or other such drugs to prepare for his role.

Mickey Rourke wouldn’t be the first celebrity to use anabolic androgenic steroids or other performance enhancing drugs if ever he was using these drugs. A few months back, there had been several artists said to have used steroids as an anti-aging drug. According to Rourke though, he did not use steroids or human growth hormones in order to improve his body. He just used new heavy duty supplements.

While staying behind the scenes the past few months during the Roger Clemens investigation, Jeff Novitzky, a federal agent, now himself in the lime light.

From New York Times:

Novitzky is currently in Washington helping federal prosecutors prepare witnesses and evidence to present to a grand jury that has been convened to investigate whether Clemens lied to Congress when he said he did not use performance enhancing drugs, according to several lawyers briefed on the matter.

Novitzky is serving as a liaison between the prosecutors and two witnesses the government is preparing to bring in front of the grand jury: the convicted anabolic steroids dealer Kirk Radomski and Clemens’s former trainer, Brian McNamee.

Novitzky primarily found evidence that Radomski distributed steroids among Major League players. As part of his plea, Radomski ultimately led Novitzky to McNamee, who also cooperated with the ongoing investigation of steroids used in baseball. The Mitchell Report issued based on information both by Radomski and McNamee named Clemens and dozens of players, a little more than a year ago.

Baseball players Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch admitted to McNamee’s story and stated that they had indeed been accepting steroids from him. Knoblauch is now out of the league, and Pettitte has declined accepting the contract offered to him to pitch in 2009.

With the meeting between McNamee, Novitzky and their respective lawyers being postponed, Pettitte’s chance of returning the Yankees next season is unclear. One thing is certain though: the Yankees will inevitably distance themselves from Pettitte.  The Clemens case has proved enough of a distraction for spring training last season. If and when Pettitte will be summoned to testify, it will prove to be another distraction once again

In High School Football, a coach is similar to a mentor who guides athletes to become better in their fields. The coaches of a local high school apparently go beyond what is expected of them. In fact, they go to such extent as to erase the thin border between what is right and what is wrong.

The athletes of Nevada’s local high school went to a local nutritionist to ask about supplements promoted by their coaches. Apparently, these legal supplements are alternatives to anabolic  steroids and serve as bulking agents.

While coaches encourage the use of these supplements, they send a hidden message to students that it’s okay to take the quick, easier way. These future athletes might have this notion that it’s alright to take performance enhancing drugs someday since it has been implanted in their minds that what’s important it the state championship.

From Las Vegas Now:

One parent learned about the dangerous locker room chats through his son, who asked him to buy some supplements similar to steroids, “There is a need for student athletes to get bigger, from their coaches and from their school, to compete at the levels that they are at. I was shocked.”

They both visited Optivita Nutrition and talked to Nutritionist Michael Konowalski. He says coaches are encouraging the wrong message, “I see them walk in with their school bags and I know they have no idea what they are doing. They say, ‘My coach says this is a great thing,’ but they don’t want people to know they are actually pushing them in this route.”

A student athlete claims that the pressure doesn’t only come from the coaches but from fellow teammates as well. Everyone in the team knows what is going on. The problem is no one is willing to do anything about it. It might be a team secret but the use of supplements, whether they contain steroids or not, promotes bad habits and may even cause health problems.

What is the price of knowing your kid is not using any illegal, health-threatening substances? Well, to the critics of the high school steroid testing program, it shouldn’t be as expensive as 6 million dollars.

The testing bill was sponsored in 2007 and aimed to identify Texas’ high school athletes in all sorts of sports who used anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. The program doesn’t want to “catch” and punish these teens per se but would rather teach a lesson against steroid use. Fortunately, only a few students showed positive results, contrary to the belief that students using steroids is widespread in Texas.

From The Associated Press:

By the end of the current school year in June, officials expect between 40,000-50,000 public school students from all sports to be tested.

Critics rolled their eyes when the first results were released.

According to a University Interscholastic League report released Dec. 1, the first 10,117 tests produced only the four confirmed cases of steroid use. Two of the drugs identified were the anabolic steroid boldenone and a steroid called methylandrostandiol.

Another 22 cases were deemed “positive” results because students broke testing rules. They either refused to provide a urine sample, had unexcused absences the day they were selected, or left the testing area without approval. A positive test brought a 30-day suspension from play for the first offense.

The National Center for Drug Free Sport tested athletes at 195 schools between February and June 2008, covering 12 sports. Football (3,380) and girls’ volleyball (835) were the sports most often tested. The UIL will update test results next month.

Because of the few positive results, critics like Republican state Sen. Dan Patrick think that the program is a waste of the taxpayer’s money and the funds could have been used for other meaningful programs addressed to teen health issues. On the other hand, steroid testing supporter Gov. David Dewhurst thinks that it is too early to see if major changes have been made. Because of this, Rep. Dan Flynn has found middle ground in saying that the steroid testing program in Texas will continued but it will have to be scaled down to a level where it will still serve as an effective deterrent.

Vince McMahon isn’t just one of the professional wrestlers in the World Wrestling Entertainment industry. He is the chairman of the Board of Directors, a shareholder of the company, and the one many people, fans and wrestlers alike, look up to. Maybe this is why Rich Twilling found McMahon’s testimony regarding steroid use in wrestling quite annoying or why he thinks that McMahon would have every reason to lie.

From AOL Sports

The testimony was contentious from the beginning, with McMahon repeatedly saying “I don’t know” when investigators pressed him to answer whether  anabolic steroids are harmful. McMahon made the completely reasonable point that if the Committee wants to know about the health effects of steroids, it should probably ask the FDA, not the WWE.

Not long after that, McMahon told an investigator who was questioning him to “Stop trying to put words in my mouth.”

It only got more heated, with McMahon at one point saying, “I’m insulted, quite frankly, sitting in front of you today by answering some of these ridiculous questions. I’m a businessman. I’m a good businessman. I do things legally. We’re a public company. We put smiles on peoples faces all over the world. That’s what we do. This is a fun business. So it seems to me that this inquiry is some sort of witch hunt.”

Twilling had pointed out that the House Oversight Committee is just wasting its time with McMahon constantly giving tangential answers. Things got a lot similar to your usual wrestling skit when McMahon’s lawyer, Jerry McDevitt, came into the picture. McDevitt did everything from threatening to rebutting inappropriately to becoming quite aggressive.

According to Twilling, the committee shouldn’t be content with how McMahon is addressing the issue. They should consider that his answers might be reveal that he is just covering up the use of performance enhancing drugs in Pro Wrestling.

Two years after he pleaded guilty, Matthew J. Peltz just received his sentence from a federal judge in Connecticut. Peltz admitted to illegally distributing prescription anabolic steroids on the internet. He had help from other accomplices and they worked by importing raw steroid powder from China, make “home made” steroids, and distribute them through a website they have put up. The products they manufactured included oral and injectable steroids under the label of Medline Pharmaceuticals.

Peltz was found out after the federal agents of Connecticut did an investigation known as “Operation Phony Pharm“. Peltz co-defendants and fellow conspirers were identified to be Edwin Porter and Tyler Lunn.

From The Law News Network:

According to documents filed with the Court and statements made in court, Porter conspired with two other Arizona residents, Tyler Lunn and Matthew Peltz, to purchase more than one kilogram of raw steroid powder from China, manufacture anabolic steroids at Porter’s home or Lunn’s apartment in Phoenix, and distribute them to customers around the country through a MySpace.com profile “anabolic-ss” and an Internet web site they created, www.anabolic-superstore.com. In August 2007, Porter also instructed another individual to delete emails related to the distribution of anabolic steroids.

This matter stems from Operation Phony Pharm, an investigation headed by the FBI Healthcare Fraud Unit in the District of Connecticut. Using several sophisticated investigative techniques, this initiative has targeted web sites and individuals who are selling Schedule II and III pharmaceuticals over the Internet without a doctor’s consultation or a legitimate legal written prescription. The investigation also sought to identify and close down UG Labs in the U.S. that are making these drugs from raw materials obtained from outside the U.S.
Lunn had been sentenced last August 2008 while Porter had been sentenced early of December 2008. And now the trio is complete with Peltz being sentenced with a year of imprisonment.

Florida is in the right path of creating clean, disciplined athletes with their new program to test high school students for alcohol and illegal drug use.

Athletes in the Olympics and Major League Baseball won’t be the only ones submitting urine samples to authorities. The program is being funded by a U.S. Department of Education grant

From Palm Beach Post:

High school athletes will have to submit to random testing to detect the use of alcohol as well as illegal and widely abused prescription drugs under a policy preliminarily approved Wednesday by the Palm Beach County School Board.

If the board gives final approval next week, the same company that tests district employees for drug use would randomly test this season’s baseball and softball players at six high schools.

The test for anabolic steroid use will not be available initially. This is because the Florida High School Athletic association was already testing for steroids when the grant was made and funding had already run out. NMS Management Services Inc., the company who would do the tests, is willing to add steroid testing on the program later on though.

Many school officials support the idea of testing the athletes. This will work by assigning a number per athlete and numbers will be chosen randomly. The corresponding students to the numbers picked will be the ones tested. Just as Ron Hoyt, West Boca Raton High’s softball coach, had said, the new policy will serve as a warning to students who plan on using drugs or steroids since they know that there will be consequences in doing so. When caught for the first time, an athlete will be banned from joining any games for 10 days, although he or she can practice with the team. When caught for the second time, the athlete will be removed from his or her team and will be prohibited from joining any competitions for an entire year. The main goal of the program is to make sure that the students are safe, and that they develop some discipline and knowledge with what is really going on in sports.

Although already well-known by bodybuilders and athletes, 6-OXO Extreme has been made more famous due to the recent scandal involving Phillies reliever, J.C. Romero, who was taking this supplement.

The supplement 6-OXO Extreme is not a steroid although its effects are the same as any regular performance enhancing drugs. The supplement is actually an androstenedione, a hormone stimulant that boosts the production of testosterone in your body. In addition to that, a newer version of the supplement also blocks the effect of the aromatase enzyme therefore blocking the effects of estrogen. These properties will generally give you an extreme elevation of testosterone in the blood.

The manufacturers of 6-OXO Extreme, Proviant Technologies, admitted to putting a warning on the label of the supplement saying, “Use of this product may be banned by some athletic or government associations”. They pointed, however, that no ingredient in the supplement would cause a positive result in anabolic steroid drug tests. There is much information on the supplement that remains unknown such as its safety, if it’s healthy and if it’s natural. Just because it is not FDA-approved, it doesn’t mean that 6-OXO Extreme is illegal. In fact even GNC admitted that it sells the supplement and that “it only sells products that meet all relevant legal and regulatory standards for the nutritional supplement industry”.

With all these facts stated, it makes you wonder why J.C. Romero is now being condemned for the use of 6-OXO. Dr. Bruce Sennet of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania has a theory:

From 6 ABC Action News:

Dr. Sennett says the tests which tripped up J.C. Romero probably picked up elevated testosterone, but not any residues from the supplement itself.

Do you remember the hit reality television series, “American Gladiators” that showed a few years back? If so, you will probably remember one of its stars, Dan Clark also known as “Nitro”.

Dan Clark used to be a defensive lineman for the LA Rams. Even before he had started his career on television, he had been using anabolic steroids for a total of 20 years. When he first started, the drug enabled him to gain massive strength and a whopping 32 pound increase in muscle weight. It’s no doubt that these gains had helped him throughout his career.

Behind all the glitz and glamour, however, Clark faced the serious consequences of using steroids for such a long period of time. In his memoir entitled “Gladiator: A True Story of ‘Roids, Rage and Redemption”, he reveals that ironically, the “performance enhancing drugs” caused his privates, namely his testicles, to shrink.  He also experienced pain whenever he had sex. Clark found it very difficult, embarrassing and awkward to explain his condition to the women he was with.

One of the more obvious effects the steroids had on Clark was the development of man boobs, scientifically known as gynecomastia. It caused Clark a great deal of embarrassment that he had to ask his wardrobe stylist to design a new uniform for him in order to hide his breasts. Clark writes more about his experiences:

From Fox News:

“I hate[d] taking off my shirt. For photo shoots, [I'd] wet my nipple with spit … [to] look firm instead of hanging down.”

In the end, Clark decided to undergo reduction surgery, the only method to “reverse” gynecomastia.

On January 24, boxer Shane Mosley will be facing WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito in the rings of Staples Center. While the preparation is intense, this isn’t the only challenge Mosley will be facing. For the past few months, his legal team has been trying to clear his name from his connection with the 2003 federal raid on BALCO, implicating that Mosley had used illegal performance enhancing drugs during his match with Oscar De La Hoya. In the process, Mosley and his camp bumped heads with founder and owner of BALCO, Victor Conte. BALCO is the company that allegedly sold Mosley anabolic  steroids.

While Mosley would claim that he was misled by Conte and was not aware of what he was taking, Conte would claim that he had fully disclosed the steroids to the boxer. Mosley would the counter with, as Conte would claim, a web of lies. The case slowly became more confusing as to who is telling the truth.

From Maxboxing

Conte, speaking exclusively to Maxboxing, would explain, “Basically what happened is that we filed an anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) motion; basically this is what you do when there’s no merit to a lawsuit and it’s strictly a PR stunt and it’s frivolous. So that was our response and we were getting ready to file a motion and there were some issues that came up about Shane and his residence. And what we discovered was that he had represented in a court case, under oath, two weeks before we deposed him, that he was a resident of California. And when we deposed him he said he was a resident of Nevada. Now, you can’t be a resident of both states at the same time, so in one of the cases he was not being truthful. We believe it was in our case because he lives in California, his children go to school in California, and he operates his business out of California. He may have income or properties that he owns in Nevada and may have income that he has there fighting, but it was clear, in our opinion, that he’s a California resident. So once we told them that we were going to bring this issue up, which could have possibly led to discussions of tax fraud, because one of the two times he was not being truthful, we know he’s misrepresented a number of things to the grand jury. So what happened was they agreed to withdraw the federal lawsuit and we found out later that the exact same day they withdrew the federal case, they filed another case in the state court of New York.”

This actually isn’t the first case of its kind that BALCO got involved with. Back in 2004, Marion Jones, a multi-gold medalist in track and field, also tried to dispel any connections between herself, BALCO, and the use of performance enhancing drugs. Conte had come clean about his role in Jones’ career and although she had initially filed a lawsuit for defamation, she later on admitted to lying. This eventually led to a prison sentence.

Conte believes that this issue with Mosley is another “Marion Jones”. He is quite confident that Mosley’s own words would eventually lead to his downfall while he faces the court this January 15.

David Adkins, a resident of Kenova, West Virginia, was arrested last Friday in his residence at 942 Walnut Street for illegal distribution of steroids and other drugs. Adkins, also known as “Nose” in the streets, was under investigation for 2 years. After finding evidences of several trades done at his home, and after continuous surveillance, the local police have finally decided to take action.

Several prescription steroids and other drugs, with an estimated cost of $10,000, were seized from his house by the Kenova police. Other possessions they detained possessions included cash worth $3,139, a 1998 Honda Accord, a 2001 Ford Explorer, and an H & K 0.40 handgun. Police had also found Adkins’ personal computer, which contained details to keep track of his sales.

Adkins is believed to be a major player in Kenova’s local drug trade, and have done several deals in the black market. He has also violated governmental laws and regulations with regards to acquiring and selling of prescription drugs such as anabolic steroids that would otherwise be illegal in the United States.

From The State Journal

Police believe Adkins has roughly 12 people working for him and more than 300 people, stretching from Michigan to Florida, who buy drugs from him. Police found that Adkins was also using mail order prescriptions from a medical corporation in Pennsylvania as well as doctor shopping.

The court has charge Adkins with seven counts of felony due to possession of a controlled substance, with the intent to distribute these to other states. Federal charges against him are presently pending.

Mr. Universe 2003 Manuel Manchado will find himself celebrating a not so happy New Year this year. The Spanish body builder, as well as six others, was sentenced to two years of prison for illegal trafficking of anabolic steroids. This arrest was a result of the opening of two postal packages containing “substances used clandestinely for the development of the mass and the force muscular” in 2003, which led to the finding of several illegal operations in the country.

Manchado runs a gym in Leganes, Madrid, as well as an online business that sells these drugs over the internet, and a store that sells sporting supplements. Local police have seized half a million doses of illegal products when they raided several of his warehouses. These products were allegedly provided by a company named Steromax Spain. According to Manchado, he was contracted by Steromax to commercialize and distribute its products. Among these products were three types of drugs banned from being sold in Spain. Steromax was also found to counterfeit prescriptions, as well as sell supplements with no medical or pharmaceutical value but were claimed to have the ability to increase muscle tone. The company was also penalized for distributing the drugs without having proper authorization, and for bringing about serious health risks to their buyers.

The court has considered that the arrested might be a part of an organized group involved in illegal importation of banned substances, storage of these products, and their distribution and commercialization.

The local magistrates have offered Manchado and some of his companions the possibility of posting a bail of 5,760 Euros.

Timesunion.com has released its list of top stories for the year 2008 based on the number of clicks by readers. Included in this list are the reports that Obama’s surname was converted into a terrorist’s name in an absentee ballot, the story about a psychologist who had sexual relations with a student, and wrong information told by the police.

Interestingly, the story that ranked second was an article entitled “Steroids beyond sports”. The story details the use of steroids extending from sports to various celebrities. This article was released last January and mentioned a number of stars who have allegedly used anabolic  steroids and injectable human growth hormones.

From Albany Times Union:

The names of R&B music star Mary J. Blige, along with rap artists 50 Cent, Timbaland and Wyclef Jean, and award-winning author and producer Tyler Perry, have emerged in an Albany-based investigation of steroids trafficking that has already rocked the professional sports world, according to confidential sources.

Information has surfaced recently showing those stars are among tens of thousands of people who may have used or received prescribed shipments of steroids and injectable human growth hormone in recent years. Law enforcement officials have said they have no evidence in their sprawling multistate probe that customers, including Blige or other entertainers, violated any laws. Instead, they are targeting anti-aging clinics, doctors and pharmacists who prescribed the drugs.

Still, medical experts say that use of steroids and human growth hormone — an estimated $10 billion-a-year operation worldwide — reaching into the entertainment industry illustrates how pervasive steroids use in the United States has become. It is not unique to athletics, where performance-enhancing drug use has marred many sports. For many celebrities, the lure of hormonal drugs is their supposed, unproven anti-aging effects.

Investigations of baseball players that have been doping surprised the public. Apparently, the news of famous artists using steroids also caught the public eyes. As mentioned in the article, this was nothing new to Hollywood and while people focus on the individuals taking them, they should be more interested in the doctors providing these athletes and celebrities with prescriptions to purchase the drugs.

From Independent Film:

Writer/director Chris Bell’s life may not be a swell ride right now with the recent death of his brother Mike “Mad Dog” Bell, but his screen career is gaining adequate recognition from critics.

From Independent Film:

Plenty of documentarians today still rely on the same old creative crutches, but in the year 2008, the docs that rubbed up against the zeitgeist had to be bold, provocative or artful to stand apart. It has little to do with elections or wars or bailouts, and more to do with what’s escalating in our Information Aging: digital technology gets cheaper, which births more neophyte filmmakers, which grows the breadth of watchable content at our fingertips to gluttonous proportions, which prompts the mainstream media to pollute themselves with tabloid sensationalism in their begging for our distracted attentions.

Chris Bell’s mighty entertaining “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” blamed the overuse of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs on the distinctly American mentality to win at all costs, a conclusion made all the most unhappily compelling by the death of his subject and brother, Mike “Mad Dog” Bell, last week. Bell especially stands out this year for his man-with-a-microphone charisma, a persona inspired by the likes of Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock, whose own new docs, “Slacker Uprising” and “Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?”, marked low points in both of their careers. (The former was a glorified DVD featurette that Moore suspiciously gave away for free on the interwebs; the latter was a condescending lump of gimmicky self-aggrandizement that saw Spurlock searching under rocks in the Middle East for terrorists.)

Bell’s documentary focuses on America’s win-at-all-cost culture, with views gleaned form personal experience – Bell and his two brothers have used steroids – and from interviews. The film’s synopsis says: “At its heart, this is the story of director Christopher Bell and his two brothers, who grew up idolizing muscular giants like Hulk Hogan, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and who went on to become members of the steroid-subculture in an effort to realize their American dream.  When you discover that your heroes have all broken the rules, do you follow the rules, or do you follow your heroes?”

Bell’s brother Mike, a former pro wrestler, was found dead in Costa Mesa rehab home whose bout with substance abuse was depicted in said documentary.

According to Cycling News, American cyclo-cross rider Jonathan Page missed a post-race doping control at the fourth round of the UCI’s World Cup in Belgium. His failure to submit to screening earned him a hearing from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). The outcome could mean a two-year ban for the 32-year-old rider.

Page described it as a “stupid mistake”.

“I’m relying on a hearing from USADA and I can only hope that they listen to our story that is was nothing but a stupid mistake,” Page told Cyclingnews.

“When I talked with Page about this he was devastated and really upset,” said UCI’s cyclo-cross coordinator Peter Van den Abeele said. “He was so upset by the news that he didn’t start in Zolder despite having the right to start in the race.”

According to reports, Page left the race after his crash on the third lap. Apparently, he was unaware that he was selected to undergo doping control. On Dec. 19, he received a letter informing him that he missed a post-race doping control in Koksijde, the race’s venue.

Page pulled out of the Koksijde World Cup after a crash on the third lap and left the race venue unaware of his selection for doping controls. A few weeks later, on December 19, Page received a letter which stated he missed a post-race doping control in Koksijde.

Cori Page, Jonathan’s wife, provided details on the incident.

“Jonathan had a crash, was hurt and went back the mobile home,” explained Cori about the day in Koksijde. “When I didn’t see him anymore in the race, I of course got worried and went back to the mobile home, too. Jonathan was busy calling his doctor, who was in Denmark at the time, to schedule an appointment, and then the contract agent to report that he would not be able to do the race the following day. I was busy talking to Jonathan about the crash and whether or not he was ok and how he was holding up mentally.

“I didn’t remember to go to the finish line to check for doping at the end of the race. I’m usually his backup and I failed,” continued Cori. “Our second backup is a guy who is at most of the races helping another rider. He checks the control list, too, but on the days where there are chaperones no one worries because the riders will be picked up and escorted to the control. Koksijde was a race with chaperones.

“Additionally, there are all of the other soigneurs and even some of the officials,” said Cori. “When they hear a rider’s name called, they all help each other by either finding the rider in person or calling the rider on the phone. None of that happened for Jonathan that day. He had absolutely no idea he was on the list. And after many calls, we came to find out that really no one had any idea, as far as we could tell.

“The only bit of luck Jonathan has had in this situation was that at his appointment with the doctor he had his blood taken as part of his checkup since he was overdue anyway,” said Cori. “We offered the test to the anti-doping agency and anyone else that wants to see it. As always, no performance enhancing drugs, no anabolic steroids, no EPO. At least this way, if he does get suspended for missing that test, he will have been suspended just for his mistake, not for being a doper. Jonathan is far from a doper. Everyone important to us knows that.”

The latest downturn in Roger Clemens’ life had cost him $3 million.

According to the report by the New York Daily News, the pitcher’s name is being dropped from the Roger Clemens Institute for Sports Medicine. The Houston’s Memorial Hermann announced recently their intent to erase the name of Clemens from the institution.

A statement from the medical facility announced: “To better reflect its commitment to all sports and athletes, the facility will transition to become known as the Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine Institute, effective Jan. 1, 2009. The move reflects a desire to promote the broad range of sports medicine services and programs offered by Memorial Hermann across the greater Houston area.”

Reportedly, the embattled slugger donated $3 million to Memorial Hermann for a pediatric wing at Memorial Hermann’s Children’s Hospital.

When asked for any comments, Clemens’ lawyer did not offer any.

Since the BALCO Affair in 2003, controversies have been dogging the once famed player of the major league. His name was among the elite athletes who were alleged of using anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.

He was asked to testify before a grand jury and his name appeared more than 80 times in the Mitchell Report. His former trainer Brian McNamee testified that he had personal knowledge of Clemens’ use of anabolic steroids, saying that he had injected Clemens with Winstrol during the 1999, 2000, and 2001 seasons.

His personal life is also not without its share of “special report” moments. The Daily News broke the news in April that Clemens had been romantically involved with country singer Mindy McCready for ten years. The affair allegedly started when the singer was only 15 years old.

Italian player Eduardo Carlos Morgado Oliveira gets a two-year ban for testing positive for anabolic steroids (specifically nandrolone) metabolites. The doping control that got Oliveira took place on Oct.18 in the match for third place between Russia and Italy at the FIFA Futsal World Cup Brazil 2008.

Nandrolone is most commonly sold commercially as Deca-Durabolin (decanoate ester) and Durabolin (phenylproprionate ester). Nandrolone is used in the treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women and certain forms of anemias. .

Liberian player Melvin King receives a five-month ban after testing positive for a glucocorticoid at a doping control after the match of the preliminary competition of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The match took place between Senegal and Liberia on 21 June 2008.

A glucorticoid is a steroid hormone that is used a performance-enhancing drug since it can is involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates, protein, and fat in the body.