Illegal drug convict, Richard Donoghue, is now released after spending his 360 days in jail. His conviction was brought about by the drug raid conducted in September 2007 in Bruce Street. In Ontario Court Justice, Richard pleaded guilty in the seven counts of illegal drug charges including possession of ketamine, magic mushrooms, ecstasy and steroids.

Federal prosecutor, Mauro DiCarlo told the court that the police officers who conducted the raid were able to seize seized 150 grams of cocaine, 155 grams of ketamine, 329 ecstasy pills, 60 grams of magic mushrooms, 72 vials of liquid steroids and 100 steroid pills, which planned to sell.

From The Peterborough Examiner:

The list of drugs and items seized during a 2007 Bruce Street drug raid was three pages long, the federal Crown said yesterday.

Richard Donoghue, 36, pleaded guilty yesterday in Ontario Court of Justice to seven counts including possessing ketamine, magic mushrooms, ecstasy and steroids for the purpose of trafficking.

Police seized 150 grams of cocaine, 155 grams of ketamine, 329 ecstasy pills, 60 grams of magic mushrooms, 72 vials of liquid steroids and 100 steroid pills, federal prosecutor Mauro DiCarlo said.

Police also seized debt lists, cash and two prohibited knives, one that was spring loaded and one attached to brass knuckles. Drugs were also found in Donoghue’s Camaro, which was also seized.

After the raid held in Bruce Street, the police stated that total amount of illegal drugs confiscated, including those found inside Donoghue’s Camaro worth $60,000. More so, the police officers also found debt lists, cash and two prohibited knives.

Richard Donoghue, now 36, is recently released from jail. However, he will still be monitored since he will be under probation for 18 months.

Due to the possible health hazards of regulated or controlled drugs such as ecstasy, steroid and cocaine; trafficking, use and possession of these without the prescription or legal documentation from the doctor are punishable by the law.

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.

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.

NASCAR will test drivers under new and tougher anti-doping policy starting January next year, according to an AP report.

NASCAR is likely to carry out the test on the third week of January. Under the new policy, anabolic steroids, as well as illegal drugs and abuse of prescription drugs are prohibited.

Crew members are likewise covered by the new anti-doping program as they are asked to submit test results from an approved lab by Jan.16.  A NASCAR memo was sent to teams providing guidelines, including the list of drugs for which crew members must be tested. “Crew members” include pit crew members, including “over-the-wall” crew members, the crew chief, car chief, team members responsible for tires, fuel and pit crew operation, spotters and race-day support personnel that include engineers, engine tuners, shock specialists, chassis specialists and tire specialists.

In said memo, the banned substances include:

-    Seven different amphetamines, including methamphetamine and PMA, a synthetic psychostimulant and hallucinogen.
-    Three drugs classified under ephedrine.
-    3 different narcotics, including codeine and morphine.
-    Ten different benzodiazepines and barbituates.
-    Marijuana, cocaine, zolpidem, nitrites, chromates and drugs that can increase specific gravity.

Excerpts from the AP report:

Under the old policy, NASCAR had the right to randomly test based on suspicion of abuse. Under the tougher guidelines first announced in September, everyone will be tested before the season begins, and random testing will continue throughout the year. NASCAR expects to randomly test 12 to 14 individuals per series each weekend in 2009.

The driver testing, which will be administered by NASCAR, had been scheduled for preseason testing at Daytona next month. But because testing has been suspended for 2009, NASCAR likely will screen drivers when most are in Charlotte next month for the annual media tour of race shops.

The gap in the drug policy was exposed last September when Truck Series driver Ron Hornaday Jr. admitted he used a testosterone cream during 2004 and 2005 to treat a medical issue.

Hornaday has Grave’s disease, a condition he’s treating with Synthroid, which replaces a hormone normally produced by the thyroid gland to regulate the body’s energy and metabolism.

NASCAR did not punish him for the testosterone admission, saying the cream did not enhance his performance or impair his judgment.

The admission of another Truck Series driver Aaron Fike also prompted the association to adopt a more stringent policy on prohibited compounds. Fike said he had used heroin even when he was racing.

Police officers executing domestic violence restraining order last week made an unexpected discovery at the home of Jonathan Lester located at the Howell Township.

According to the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office, Officers Sean O’Neill and Cristopher Schirripa who were authorized to search the house for weapons instead discovered a cache of illegal drugs and paraphernalia. The officers found 233 hypodermic syringes, 31 vials of anabolic steroids, under 50 grams of marijuana, and three ecstasy pills.

Sheriff Kim Guadagno said the finding was significant because “the use and distribution of anabolic steroids is a serious issue particularly this time of year when high school sports are in full swing. It’s important for parents to be aware that this type of illegal activity exists.”

Lester was charged with possession of controlled dangerous substances (steroids and ecstasy), possession with intent to distribute (steroids), possession with intent to distribute drug paraphernalia (syringes), possession of under 50 grams of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.