Steroids Blog on Steroids RX.com

The Man with a Plan Focused on Legal Performance Enhancement in BALCO Aftermath

Texas Rangers outfielder Marlon Byrd has acknowledged using dietary supplements produced by Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning (SNAC). SNAC System is the supplement company owned by Victor Conte, the former mastermind behind the BALCO steroid scandal. While Conte has put the BALCO experience behind him to focus on the formulation of legal performance-enhancing supplements, his detractors have refused to allow him to escape the dreaded steroid stigma.

Marlon Byrd has been widely criticized by numerous sports writers for associating with Victor Conte. Byrd is nonetheless proud of his association and wanted to be listed as a “SNAC Athlete” on the SNAC website. He has been pleased with the results of using SNAC's Proglycosyn, Physiobalm, Aerobitine, Vitalyze and ZMA products during the past 18 months.

"People are going to question it. Of course, they are," Byrd told the Dallas Morning News. "His supplements work for me. The things that I'm taking are subtle supplementsto play the game. It's weird to say, but it's safer, in my opinion.”

The implication behind the criticisms is that Victor Conte can not be trusted. The argument is that since he produced undetectable steroids to help athletes cheat during the BALCO era, he would be more likely to introduce undetectable steroids into SNAC supplements. Such suggestions seem unfounded especially given the extra scrutiny facing Conte; Conte reports being extra vigilant with all SNAC products; SNAC supplements are produced in Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) manufacturing facilities.

The irony behind the stigmatization and ostracism of Victor Conte is that Conte has engaged in the most open and honest dialogue regarding the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in professional sports of any participant associated with the BALCO scandal. It is no surprise that Marlon Byrd has placed his trust in someone who has approached performance enhancement so honestly. However, Byrd’s courage to disregard the stigma brought about by the contemporary steroid hysteria is, although refreshing, exceedingly uncommon.

"I've never been labeled a cheater. I know Victor has.” Byrd explained to the Dallas Morning News. “If I was doing something wrong, do you think I would have come out with it? I'm being honest."

Marlon Byrd opposed general manager Jon Daniels’ supplement recommendations for Texas Ranger players. The official team policy discourages the use of all supplements except for the few NSF certified and approved products. Daniels plans to sit down and discuss Byrd’s relationship with Victor Conte. But Daniels conceded that "Marlon's a veteran player who is a grown man and can make his own choices.”

“I don’t know if people are blackballing him,” Byrd told Steve Henson of Yahoo! Sport. “I don’t know how they will look at me. I’m not worried about it. I don’t care.”

Victor Conte’s past experience in providing illegal performance enhancing drugs to elite athletes like Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, Dwain Chambers and Kelli White have made him a controversial figure. However, Conte also revealed that some athletes consume legal dietary supplements for many of the same reasons other athletes use anabolic steroids. These inconvenient truths that expose the hypocrisy behind the war on steroids make it difficult for Conte to escape the controversial shadow of BALCO.

“Where I drew the parallel between my legal products and anabolic steroids is that both are really about recovery, accelerating healing and tissue repair,” Conte explained in an interview with Yahoo! Sport. “What these products do, similar to what steroids do, is enable an athlete to recover quicker to do a deeper training load.

“You’re not going to get the type of benefit you would from anabolic steroids from any over-the-counter supplement. But can you get 25 percent of that effect with sophisticated nutritional support programs? Yes, you can.”

Marlon Byrd’s honesty about his use of dietary supplements, much like Victor Conte’s honesty about the reality of legal and illegal PED use in professional sports, should be cause for celebration. Regrettably, honesty is not always welcome. Sometimes the truth is too controversial.

Sources

“Byrd takes Conte’s supplements without apology,” June 24, 2009

“Marlon Byrd taking big risk working with Victor Conte,” June 25, 2009

“Rangers' Byrd stands by his decision about supplements,” June 26, 2009

By Millard Baker

http://www.millardbaker.com

www.SteroidsRx.com

Collins McDonald Gann Law Firm Gives Presentation at International Society for Sport Nutrition Conference

Top supplement industry attorneys are predicting increased regulation for the supplement industry within the next 4-8 years Rick Collins and Alan Feldstein, representing the law firm Collins, McDonald and Gann, identified four potential “minefields” facing supplement companies in a presentation entitled “Supplements, Science, and the Politics of New Washington” given at the International Society of Sports Nutrition Conference (ISSN) in New Orleans on June 15, 2009.

The tone of the presentation was “cautionary but not pessimistic” as Collins and Feldstein identified the risks facing the supplement industry in general but especially the sports nutrition segment. These risks include the (1) pro-regulatory philosophy of FDA and FTC; (2) state attorney generals actions on behalf of citizens; (3) class action lawsuits; and (4) profit-motivated adulteration.

The FDA and FTC will become increasing pro-regulation thanks to new appointments according to Collins and Feldstein. Key nominations by the Obama administration include Dr. Margaret Hamburg and Dr. Joshua Sharfstein who have been confirmed as the new FDA commissioner and FDA principal deputy commissioner, respectively. Of particular interest to the supplement industry is Dr. Sharfstein’s role as a former advisor to the anti-supplement Congressman Henry Waxman. Furthermore, David Vladeck, the new FTC Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, has long been critical of supplement industry and misleading claims during his 30 years working with the Public Citizen Litigation Group.

Secondly, state attorney generals are increasingly likely to sue supplement companies under consumer protection statutes. Local district attorneys (particularly in California) are participating too.

Also, there has been a growing trend towards plaintiffs filing class action lawsuits targeting “false marketing claims” and “false advertising claims” made by supplement companies. The law firm Call, Jensen & Ferrell is representing plaintiffs in a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit against Musclemeds for violating California Consumer Legal Remedies Act. A California court has appointed the firms of Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson and Call, Jensen & Ferrell to represent plaintiffs in a $100 million class action lawsuit against BSN. The law offices of Juroviesky and Ricci and the law offices of Wood and Wood have each filed a class action lawsuits against Iovate Health Sciences and MuscleTech on behalf of plaintiffs in Ontario (Canada) and Tennessee, respectively.

Lastly, the FDA is going after supplement companies whose names/brands appear on the product for “profit motivated adulteration” even if the raw material supplier(s) or the manufacturer was responsible for the adulteration.

The reports of supplement tainted with Viagra, weight loss supplements spiked with pharmaceutical weight loss drugs, aromatase inhibitor products contaminated with androstenedione, and seizures and forfeitures involving unapproved new dietary ingredients (NDIs) increase the likelihood that the supplement industry will be more aggressively regulated.

Collins and Feldstein told researchers and scientists at the ISSN conference that the increased regulatory environment was an excellent opportunity for them to step up to the plate with clinical studies that would withstand scientific scrutiny. The demand for good researchers and good science in the supplement industry has become greater than ever.

But if prescription and/or illegal drugs to appear in supplements (even in trace amounts with no physiologic effects) or products appear that do not meet the definition of a dietary supplement or NDI e.g. methylated prohormone, then the FDA will step in aggressively with more stringent regulations and restrictions.

Source

“2009 International Society of Sports Nutrition Conference,” June 14-16, 2009

By Millard Baker

http://www.millardbaker.com

www.steroidsrx.com

Dr. Ramon Scruggs Admitted Prescribing Drugs for Performance Enhancement

Ramon Scruggs, M.D. pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids and import human growth hormone into the United States from China and one count of money laundering on June 1, 2009. Scruggs admitted to prescribing anabolic steroids and HGH “outside the usual course of professional practice” at his anti-aging clinic called New Hope Health Center in California. Scruggs acknowledged he prescribed the medications to athletes and bodybuilders for performance enhancing purposes and not legitimate therapeutic purposes.

Ramon Scruggs, M.D. openly worked with bodybuilders visiting his New Hope Med website as early as 1999; he felt that the best way for a physician to effectively supervise the health of a steroid-using bodybuilder was to medically monitor their steroid use and assure that bodybuilders avoided potentially dangerous black market sources of anabolic steroids. At the time, Dr. Scruggs felt that he was doing the right thing by monitoring and prescribing steroids to bodybuilders even if it was in violation of the law.

“I feel very comfortable in the choices I’ve made and the reason for those choices. I know that I’m helping people far more than I’m hurting them,” Scruggs said in an interview with Jason Mueller of Anabolic Extreme. “If you want to know the truth, I don’t like taking 22 or 23 year-old and putting them on steroids, it makes me nervous. Yet, I’d rather have them come to me and manage their steroid use, and then have them do it on their own.”

Dr. Scruggs liberally prescribed steroids to bodybuilders and athletes whose testosterone levels were considered normal. He justification his prescription policy by criticizing the established normal range accepted by the medical community.

“I’ll admit to you that as I do this, my criteria have relaxed. Before I would only do this with athletes or with ordinary citizens if they had a limitation, if they were hypogonadal, if they were on the low side of normal on their blood work,” explained Scruggs. “I’ve gradually relaxed that to include people who would be quote unquote normal. You’ve got to realize that virtually everything hormonal is considered normal by the establishment. They have virtually no ability to look at, let’s say the estrogen/progesterone levels for a woman, and testosterone for men and women, and say anything much about them at all because everybody from age 12 to age 90 is considered normal.”

Ramon Scruggs had already faced the consequences of his decision to liberally prescribe steroids to bodybuilders. In June 2004, the State of California formally accused Dr. Scruggs of prescribing steroids and ancillary medications without justification over the internet to patients who he did not physically examine. He settled his case with the State of California in August 2006. In the settlement, Scruggs agreed the state could prove the charges and accepted a $4,800 fine and 35 months of probation: during that time he is required to have an outside monitor, take various courses and cease prescribing over the Internet. The settlement was agreed to in August 2006 and took effect in March 2007.

Dr. Scruggs probably thought that his legal troubles were behind him. But in the fall of 2007, the Albany County District Attorney’s Office, which led the investigation of the steroid scandal involving Signature Pharmacy, leaked information that Dr. Scruggs prescribed steroids to professional baseball players Troy Glaus and Scott Schoeneweis playing for the Anaheim Angels in 2003 and 2004. As a result of the leak, federal prosecutors decided to re-open the case of anti-aging doctor Ramon Scruggs in an effort to find more baseball players who have used anabolic steroids.

Glaus and Schoeneweis as well as catcher Todd Greene and pitcher Ismael Valdez were interviewed by federal agents investigating Scruggs. Glaus and Greene testified at the grand jury that indicted Dr. Scruggs. The New York Times reported that Glaus and Greene told the grand jury that Mike Nicotera and Gene Casaleggio, senior partners for the Sparta Group, referred them Dr. Scruggs.

Ramon Scruggs is scheduled for sentencing on September 14, 2009 by U.S. District Judge James Ware. He faces up to 25 years imprisonment and a $750,000 fine.

Ramon Scruggs, M.D. has and continues to pay a substantial penalty for prescribing steroids and HGH to bodybuilders and athletes, including a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing in October 2005.

“I don’t have any emotional reserve left,” Dr. Scruggs told Michael Schmidt of the New York Times. “I have been fighting this for 10 years. It has destroyed myself, my life and my family. If I was smart I would be on a beach in Manawatu.”

Sources

“Doctor with ties to ex-Angels pleads guilty in steroids case,” June 3, 2009

“Southern California Doctor Pleads Guilty to Steroid Distribution, HGH Importation, and Money Laundering,” June 2, 2009

“Inside a Tempting World of Easy Steroids,” April 11, 2009

“Questions and Answers With Ramon Scruggs,” April 11, 2009

”Inquiry Into Doctor May Link Players to Drugs,” March 12, 2008

“Interview with Dr. Ramon Scruggs,” April 1999

By Millard Baker

http://www.millardbaker.com

www.SteroidsRx.com