“There are 15 people, all with the same substance. This is the strangest thing, because it leads to the conclusion that there is an organized effort,” Minos Kyriakou told The Associated Press. The athletes — 11 weightlifters, three runners and a swimmer — all tested positive for methyltrienolone, a banned steroid. “There is an organized crime — because that is what this is called,” Kyriakou said. “Because it seems there is a lot of money hidden there, a lot of profit.”

While Kyriakou believed organized doping resulted in the methyltrienolone positives, he was careful to dismiss suggestions of systematic doping.

“It’s not systematic, but definitely there are some guys who know the sources and I think the state needs to take care to discover that,” Kyriakou said Sunday. “At the end, they have to be punished by the state.”

The phrases “organized doping” and “systematic doping” are often used interchangebly. But I’m guessing that Kyriakou apparently made the distinction to deflect suggestion of state-sponsored systematic doping of Greek athletes. WADA, on the other hand, apparently had suspicions of systematic doping and a potential cover-up at the WADA/IOC approved anti-doping lab in Athens when they chose to test samples at a lab in Germany (“Greek media accuse Olympic team of cover up,” April 13).

Another unexplained aspect of the whole case which seems to suggest  WADA had suspected attempts to mount a cover up is the fact that samples taken from the Greek team were tested in Cologne, Germany, rather than Athens which has one of the world’s most advanced anti – doping labs. Don Catlin, a leading expert on doping,in an interview with NEA, expressed surprise that WADA had choosen not to follow the normal procedure and allow the samples to be examined in the country involved.

Kyriakou did not name who he felt was behind the organized doping although many have blamed Greek weightlifting coach Christos Iakovou who claims to have imported contaminated supplements containing methyltrienolone from the Chinese company Auspere Technology.

I spoke with chemist Patrick Arnold of Ergopharm in Dallas last weekend. He has largely put the BALCO scandal behind him and no longer concerns himself with the tactics used by athletes to beat the drug tests. But when he work with IOC/WADA-tested athletes and created undetectable steroids such as THG, Patrick Arnold told me that several athletes used methyltrienolone in the 1990s to successfully pass doping controls. Anti-doping tests were not sensitive enough to detect the small quantities of the steroid required for performance enhancing effects. He was somewhat surprised that methyltrienolone was detected by drug testers in the Greek Weightlifting steroid scandal suggesting anti-doping tests have improved for the substance.

The fact that athletes were being caught using methyltrienolone was apparent to the international athletic community as early as April 2008 when the Greek weightlifters were busted. So, it seems highly unusual and even unlikely that systematic and/or organized doping was involved in the Greek doping scandal. Why would athletes continue to use methyltrienolone when it was obvious that it could be detected and that anti-doping agencies were looking for it specifically in Greek athletes? Would an organized doping effort be so utterly incompetent as to ignore such a threat and continue doping athletes with a detectable steroid?

This would seem to give more credence to claims of widespread supplement contamination and/or sabotage as alternate explanations to HOC president Minos Kyriakou’s claim of organized doping.

Sprinter Dimitris Regas denied the use of anabolic steroids and claimed sabotage.

Regas claimed he was a victim of “some people who want to attack (Greek) athletics,” adding he would lodge an official complaint against the parties in question, without specifying who they might be.

The coach for 400 meter hurdler Fani Halkia and Dimitris Regas, George Panagiotopoulos, has denied the use of steroids and claimed sabotage.

“It would be my pleasure for Greek justice to intervene.  I want them to intervene. My two athletes (Halkia and Regas) did not use methyltrienolone. I believe there has been sabotage or tampering at doping control.  I had never heard of that substance, and only learned about it after the weightlifting scandal.  One thing is certain, that I would never give such substances to my athletes.  How is it possible that one would take prohibited substances only a few days prior to the Olympics, you would have to be insane.”

Slated for publication in September under the Skyhorse imprint, the book’s working title is “BALCO: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, Marion Jones and What We Can Do To Save Sports.” Conte, in conjunction with co-author Nathan Jendrick, promises to share “the dirt, the drugs, the doses, the names, dates and places, and a ‘prescription’ for a brighter future.”

He promises the “complete truth in its honest, unadulterated and raw form” and says he is “ready to tell the world everything.”

Most people will be interested in hearing “the dirt” on the various athletes allegedly involved in recent years’ doping scandals. But my attention will be on  what Conte has to say about IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitsky. As Jeff Novitsky testifies on the stand against cyclist Tammy Thomas in her perjury (doping) trial, Victor Conte is working with co-author Nathan Jendrick to pen a book that is highly critical of Novitsky. Forget about the athletes like Barry Bonds or Marion Jones that have doped; Conte has told me that Novitsky is the biggest cheater in the entire BALCO steroid scandal is Jeff Novitsky. The NY Daily News confirms that Novitsky is a target.

One of Conte’s biggest targets is likely to be Jeff Novitzky, the federal agent who sniffed out the BALCO conspiracy in 2003 and has tenaciously chased down every twist in it ever since.

Conte claims Novitzky, who is on the witness stand Monday in the government’s prosecution of cyclist Tammy Thomas (the first BALCO athlete to refuse a plea bargain and take her case to trial), fabricated a confession he says Conte gave on the day of the BALCO raid, and lied in court documents.

The more we learn about doping related events like the BALCO scandal and the Floyd Landis doping scandal, the more we realize that we live in a society where “winning at all costs” is the only standard.  This not only applies to the “dopers” but particularly to the “anti-dopers.” It’s all about winning – not about following the rules, pursuing justice, leveling the playing field, right or wrong or integrity in sports. Jeff Novitsky, WADA, USADA, etc. simply want to win and will seemingly use any unfair advantage and break the rules to do so.

Prosecutor David Soares continues to strongly criticize the U.S. war on drugs as an abysmal failure. His 2006 speech at the International Harm Reduction Association conference in Vancouver, where he warned Canada to stay as far away from U.S. drug policy as possible, earned him praise from drug law reformers.

Yet at the same time Soares was criticizing the failure of the ”war on drugs”, he was aggressively invigorating the nation’s “war on steroids“; he abandoned his efforts to repeal the Rockefeller drug laws in favor of a costly steroid witch hunt. The inescapable hypocrisy of David Soares’ actions suggest a political opportunist who lacks a principled stance on drug law reform (“Soares, Steroids and Albany,” March 2, 2007). 

Lawyers, cops and others are saying that sales across state lines automatically make this a federal crime.  Why did David try to supercede the DEA?

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.

David Soares spoke at length about his criticisms of the war on drugs and the Rockefeller drug laws to Colorlines magazine (“He Fought the Law… And He Won: David Soare’s Election,” March 22, 2005); I have included excerpts from his interview below where he sure does “talk the talk.”

Soares believes public safety is best served when the wasted money used in the war on drugs is reallocated to harm reduction and education efforts (except in the war on steroids).

Public safety is something that concerns everyone; it doesn’t matter what your color. I think when you talk about real safety, when you talk about opportunities for non-violent offenders, when you are talking about a better way of using resources available to us, putting more money into education instead of locking up 17,000 people to the tune of $5 million a year, what’s not sensible about that?

Soares believes in treatment over incarceration for drug users (except for anabolic steroid users).

Addiction is something that affects everyone, whether it is crack cocaine or alcohol. Most people, whether it be immediate family or a cousin, have that experience; they know what damage addiction does to families. So to have a system that treats addiction in the way that it does, so disproportionately, is wrong.

Soares believes in the elimination of a system where two standards of justice exist – one for poor, disadvantaged individuals and one for affluent people (except for affluent steroid users).

Because the Rockefeller Drug Laws smack of everything that is offensive, especially when you are talking about the criminal justice system… We know that [the drug law] acts negatively on African Americans and Hispanics so disproportionately that the fact that it is still on the books today makes you wonder…

Rockefeller was an important issue because it wasn’t just about drug law reform; it was about two systems of justice. It was about disproportionate effect on the economically challenged. It was about sensible reform in terms of where we are putting our money.

But in actual practice he has perpetuated the two standards of justice; only in his version of it, the affluent and advantaged drug (steroid) users are disproportionately targeted!

David Soares’ office appears to have worked tirelessly sorting through the subpenoaed records of thousands of steroid users to find the names of affluent and successful professional athletes and entertainers who may have used steroids. This information is conveniently leaked to the press, most notably Soares’ bedfellow, Brendan Lyons of the Albany Times-Union (“Stop leaks of names linked to alleged steroid use,” November 8, 2007).

“The Albany County District Attorney’s office has willfully become the handmaiden to Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the media at large,” the motion says. “They have taken great pains to bypass the sealing order imposed by Judge Kest over Signature Pharmacy records, many of which are duplicates of patient records maintained at the centers, in order to make highly publicized disclosures of confidential patient records linking patients to both (PBRC) and Signature Pharmacy.”

David Soares has succeeded in ”convicting” wealthy and affluent steroid users in the court of public opinion (and tarnishing their careers and reputations) through the “leaking” of patient records and the process of naming of unindicted co-conspirators.

If you are poor and a drug user, David Soares says he is on your side.

But if you are affluent and happen to use steroids, David Soares wants to destroy you.

So much for Soares’ single standard of justice.

Drug law reformers need to get over their abusive love affair with David Soares and recognize him for what he is – a phony!

CMPB executive director, Steve James, explains the intent of the commercials in a press release:

While the commercials parody the recent baseball scandal, the spots effectively use humor to bring out the truth about the health benefits of drinking milk… By pouring, everyone, not just athletes, can have strong bones and muscles. Milk is indeed a ‘Super Drink.’”

When the commercials originally aired, some people felt they trivialized the issue of steroids in sports. Steroid advocates were amused that the commercials also (unintentionally) highlighted the arbitrariness of performance enhancing substances that society chooses to stigmatize and sports decide to ban.

The steroids in baseball spoofs will air through the end of January 2008.

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/rel_us_print.jsp?id=806473

Victor Conte (owner of BALCO) bought a new silver Bentley Continental GT this year, his SNAC business is bringing in $300,000 a month, and some of his best customers are still major league baseball players.

I’ve recently discussed the role of the media and particularly the contextual internet ads from Google as having a big role in his success. Victor Conte attests to the power of contextual ads in the July 2007 issue of Muscular Development magazine:

It’s just incredible the attention BALCO is still getting. You can’t believe who calls me for interviews almost every day. And I’m making the most of it! Not only can I pick who interview me, but I have a marketing program where I can tap into keyword searches so that anytime anytime someone Googles ‘Barry Bonds,’ or ‘BALCO,’ or ‘baseball,’ or Jason Giambi or Marion Jones – or a ton of other keywords related to BALCO – an ad for SNAC pops up right next to the article…

Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning (SNAC) sales have increased 20% from 2006; Conte expects sales to improve even more in 2008.

Now that the worst of the consequences for my actions are behind me, I can openly say that the enormous publicity BALCO has received is great for my business… ZMA sales are stronger than ever. In fact, my entire SNAC System nutritional product line is doing better than ever before. I can’t even imagine what someone would have to pay for the type of international exposure my products have received…

Conte also acknowledges the role of the media in his success; no doubt the display of contextual ads featuring SNAC on CNN.com, NYTimes.com and USAToday.com contributed.

Of course, I would like to thank the media! They have basically turned BALCO into a household name. I now realize that I would never have received the international publicity without all of the adversity, pain and suffering that came with it…

Michael Arrington recently commented on this at TechCrunch:

The problem with automated advertising on news sites has always been the placing of inappropriate ads next to serious news issues.

Many news/media websites posted editorials complaining about the dangers of anabolic steroids and the role of the internet in facilitating steroid sales only to provide links for consumers to buy steroids (and receive payment from Google for displaying those links).

Most of the ads shown recently are not for real pharmaceutical anabolic steroids (although some ads still slip through) but OTC supplements with names that sound like steroids. Google has actually made efforts to prevent advertisers from selling steroids using their service that seem to more effective that efforts at YouTube at preventing piracy.

Victor Conte of BALCO likely made millions promoting ZMA through Google Ads. Mainstream news services published countless stories about his involvement in the recent sports steroids scandals not to mention stories about his star client, Barry Bonds. The countless stories surely provided considerable ad revenue for news sites offering coverage of the BALCO scandal courtesy Victor Conte (via Google Ads).

Another example of how all publicity is good publicity (and very profitable in some cases).

Hollywood is already promoting this as a “Barry Bonds” movie. I think everyone will be overloaded with stories about Bonds, if not already, by the time the movie is released on HBO. How many people will really want to see a movie about Barry Bonds?

Game of Shadows is well-written and interesting book that is about much more than Barry Bonds.  I hope that director Ron Shelton is able to breathe life into movie adaption with an engaging depiction of  the BALCO steroid scandal. I am hopeful as he has had some notable success with sports films:

Shelton’s sports-film directing credits include “Bull Durham,” the Ty Cobb feature “Cobb,” “Tin Cup” and “White Men Can’t Jump.”

Most are curious who will play the role of “Barry Bonds.” But I want to see who will star as “Patrick Arnold” and ”Victor Conte.” It will be a lot of fun to see actors portraying people that I have known during my time in the “bodybuilding industry!” Of course, these guys were not really major steroid distributors; they just happened to be associated with some prominent athletes thereby making it a huge scandal. Their short-term prison stints more than likely served to guarantee their future success in the bodybuilding/supplement industry.

I feel the steroid hysteria of the past several years has done more harm than good by transforming a woefully ignorant public into a largely misinformed public when it comes to the topic of anabolic steroids. But at least, all the attention given to steroids in the media has made it possible for A-list writers and producers to document the history of steroids in society and sport (e.g. Game of Shadows and Steroid Nation).

Courtesy of Variety (via Dr. Gafney’s Steroid Nation Blog).