Food, Beverage & Nutrition Law Blog » prosecutions

Steroids and athletes: Not just an American problem

Hugo Ottolenghi — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:48:26 +0000

He was a professional athlete. He was minding his own business. And he took responsibility for his problem, even if he did not think he caused it. Was he a famous American baseball, football or basketball star? No, he was a Swedish soccer player — and retired.

Goalkeeper Magnus Hedman was convicted of doping early this month in a Stockholm district court. According to one press report, police came upon his car and him at a gas station in May and found 55 tablets of stanozolol. That’s the same substance used by Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson; after he tested positive, Johnson was stripped of his Olympic gold medal and record in the 100 meter dash.

The cops did not charge Hedman with drug possession. No, the alleged crime was use of anabolic steroids after a blood test found traces of the substance in his blood.

The arrest and conviction would never have happened in the United States; because Hedman no longer plays professionally, no league would have tested him. In Sweden, though, use of anabolic steroids is illegal. And so the 36-year-old former member of two World Cup teams was tried, found guilty and fined the equivalent of $757, according to the Associated Press.

Hedman’s explanation of events sounds familiar to anyone who has followed reports of steroid use by Major League Baseball players. Hedman told the Swedish newspaper Expressen that the drug might have been in a nutritional supplement that he thought was a vitamin.

“I find it very difficult to assess when I made my mistake,” he told the newspaper. “I was unaware of it myself.”

Was that supplement legal? Or was it something else?

Hugo Ottolenghi — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:24:49 +0000

David Ortiz

The confusion surrounding steroid use in professional baseball has taken another strange turn. The Associated Press and New York Times report that eight of the 104 players who tested positive for steroids in 2003 fall into another category. The AP says that the eight did not test positive; the Times says that the eight took 19-norandrostenedione, which was legally sold over the counter at the time. It is now illegal and a player caught with it in his system will be suspended for 50 games.

David Ortiz has said from the time his name was publicly tied to the list that he had been taking vitamins. At a press conference on Aug. 8 before his Boston Red Sox played host New York Yankees, Ortiz said that he had bought supplements in the Dominican Republic and the United States. “I’m not here to make any excuse or anything,” according to a Times article. “I really used a lot of supplements and vitamins.” He added that companies would send him supplements, “but I never used or buy any steroids.”

Former Red Sox teammate Manny Ramirez, Yankee Alex Rodriguez and former Chicago Cub Sammy Sosa were also on the 2003 list. But for what? The details are in the hands of federal investigators, the players’ union cannot tell its members, and a federal judge has told everyone to keep their mouths shut.

Any language confusion in identifying nutritional products may seem unimportant to the public, but to folks in this industry there is a huge difference between a vitamin and a steroid. Or a supplement and a steroid.

When companies do not make the distinction to the satisfaction of the FDA, they hear about it. In October 2004, the agency wrote a warning letter to All American Pharmaceuticals and Natural Food Corporation regarding the labeling of the prohormone as a dietary ingredient. “FDA is not aware of any information demonstrating that androstenedione, 19-norandrostenedione, and 5-androstene-3b 17b-diol were lawfully marketed as dietary ingredients in the United States before October 15, 1994,” the letter said in part.

Apparently, 19-norandrostenedione is pretty strong stuff: “One of the most frequently misused steroid precursors (prohormones) is 19-norandrostenedione (4-estrene-3,17-dione, NOR), which is, after oral administration, readily metabolised to nortestosterone, also known as nandrolone (durabolin),” begins the abstract to a study published in 2008 on the prohormone. Its effect on the careers of All-Star players and Major League Baseball is being felt today.

Hi-Tech CEO gets 50 months in jail; Exec’s family sues prosecutor

Joel Rothman — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:04:19 +0000

Jared Wheat (pictured, left), CEO and founder of Atlanta supplement maker Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, was sentenced to 50 months in jail earlier this month for illegally selling prescription drugs online. Wheat and his co-defendants must also relinquish $3 million in proceeds.

Under a plea deal, three other defendants were sentenced to jail terms of 16 to 27 months; the judge found the 37 months for Wheat suggested in the plea was not harsh enough for his actions. During plea negotiations, prosecutors dropped allegations of racketeering, spiking supplements with ephedrine alkaloids and conspiracies of blackmail and murder.

In an odd twist, the family of one of the convicted Hi-Tech executives has sued the federal prosecutor on the case claiming he drove the executive’s wife to suicide by threatening to indict her to get her to incriminate her husband. The lawsuit, lawsuit filed last week in Atlanta, contends former prosecutor Aaron Danzig kept Jessica Holda “in a state of terror and dread.”

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, two years ago, Holda took a .40-caliber Ruger pistol and shot herself in the head. The lawsuit contends she killed herself after Danzig threatened to prosecute her for selling a luxury car that the government had targeted for seizure if she didn’t assist in the federal investigation.