“The Beat Goes On”

It seems that just when the one steroid ‘scandal’ dies down, another rears it’s head. One of the latest is the news out of Florida where, according to Federal investigators, an “anti-aging” clinic operating under the name of The Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center, was acting as an illegal distribution network that enabled clients, or patients, to place orders via the internet for a variety of performance enhancing drugs, including steroids and human growth hormone. That this was not a small time venture is evidenced by the fact that a compounding pharmacy that did much of its business with the PBRC did some $40,000,000 in sales.

In another bit of news, DEA agents conducted a raid on Applied Pharmacy Services, a compounding pharmacy in Mobile, Alabama and seized client records. Among the clients who received drugs from Applied Pharmacy included some twenty athletes in a variety of sports. Among these athletes were some high profile names, including Texas Ranger outfielder Gary Matthews, Jr, Olympic gold medal wrestler now a star pro grappler, major leaguer David Bell, Jerry Hairston, Jr. of the Texas Rangers, Jose Canseco, and a patient who went by the name of Evan Fields, who just happened to share both the birth date and home address of former heavyweight champion of the world Evander Holyfield – and who answered the phone when the number on the patient file was dialed.

Drugs received by the various athletes ranged from Human Growth Hormone (hGH) to steroids to Clomiphene Citrate, a prescription drug for treatment of female infertility but utilized by male athletes to counter the effects of increased estrogen that can occur as a result of anabolic steroid abuse, to Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG), a hormone that is produced naturally during pregnancy and thus would seem, as with Clomiphene, to be an unlikely choice for a male athlete, but which is valued for its effect on stimulating the production of testosterone, which is suppressed as a result of steroid use.

Now, we’re not commenting on the issue of the legality of placing orders for prescription drugs online, but we did find a couple of items that came out of the news reports very interesting.

One is that, just as it most often happens in such cases, a number of the athletes involved either claimed to have no knowledge of the drugs they supposedly had received, or simply refused to comment.

Another is that an agent who was part of a team investigating an internet pharmacy placed an order online claiming to be an overweight pilot with a drinking problem and a heroin addiction. Part of the questionnaire on the website asked clients the reason or reasons they were seeking the particular drugs indicated. The undercover investigator typed in that he was requesting prescriptions for hydrocodone, methadone, nandrolone (a steroid), Ritalin and testosterone because “I want to get high to fly.” In a matter of days the drugs were delivered by express mail.

It looks like the gym drug dealer has moved from the locker room to the internet.

Arley Vest