TheAgitator.com
The Other Steroids Problem
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007As the sports world waits to see what names will surface in the Mitchell report, this story surfaced about a week ago:
…27 NYPD officers cropped up on the client lists of a Brooklyn pharmacy and three doctors linked to a pro sports steroid ring.
Only six of the cops were found to have bought steroids and tested positive for the substance.
“But there were enough names on the original list that the feeling was a message had to go out,” a police source said. “Cops had to be put on notice that the department can’t have this.”
Two police chiefs also acknowledged they either bought a steroid-based cream or were treated by one of the suspect doctors.
It’s by no means the first such report. ABC News did its own cops-and-steroids expose a couple of months ago. The AP ran a similar story in 2005, and Men’s Health ran a feature in 2004. In fact, you can go all the way back to 1989, when 60 Minutes aired a package on several cops who blamed their own steroid use for a series of police brutality incidents. William Grigg notes that the FBI warned of pervasive steroid use in local police departments in 1991. In 1999, there were reports that Officer Justin Volpe’s use of the drug may have contributed to the police station beating and sodomizing of Abner Louima.
Given that police officers carry guns, night sticks, and tasers, and that they have the power to use lethal force when necessary, one would think our politicians would be more concerned about illegal use of a drug known to contribute to fits of rage and violence among law enforcement than use by a bunch of baseball players. Of course, it’s easier to score political points with the latter. It’s also probably a pretty sweet power rush to make larger-than-life sports icons cower at the sound of your hearing gavel.
MORE: New reason honcho Matt Welch finds this gem from Rep. Chris Shays:
“Let me just say that they were deceitful,” Shays, a Republican, said of the collective baseball group. “They weren’t cooperative. And they were arrogant. And they were like, ‘How dare you question us,’ kind of attitude. And I want you to know I don’t take offense at that. There are certain things as a member of Congress I don’t like. But personally, I was just stunned by it because I haven’t see worse behavior in anyone in my 20 years in public life in Congress.”
Pardon my French, but are you fucking kidding me? Shays has served with colleagues who’ve stolen from the public treasury, taken bribes, committed rape and sexual assault, and otherwise made complete asses of themselves. And the worst behavior he’s seen in 20 years was when a bunch of baseball people were (correctly) indignant about Congress shoving its nose in internal baseball matters over which had no legitimate authority or jurisdiction?
The statement says far more about Shays than it does about Mark McGwire, Bud Selig, or baseball.
i wish had something more meaningful to add but “..are you fucking kidding me” pretty much sums it up.
“The proposal comes after 27 NYPD officers cropped up on the client lists of a Brooklyn pharmacy and three doctors linked to a pro sports steroid ring.”
“Only six of the cops were found to have bought steroids and tested positive for the substance.”
I too am more concerned about drug use in law enforcement than in baseball. I think cops should be tested for all illegal susbstances and dealt with as per procedure.
Let’s remember that the NYPD has 20,000 cops, not including supervisors. “Six” tested positive out of “27″ that were on this list.
It’s a problem that needs to be dealt with and I bet will be dealt with.
Volpe is an ass, that should be in jail for life. If not given proper restitution.
But shouldn’t recreational steroid use be legal in a libertaria world? Aren’t the dangers over-stated? What’s the problem here?
Roach,
i think the problem here is that people like shays are all bent out of shape about a bunch of roided up ball players when, if one believes roids to be an issue, cops would seem to pose a larger public problem.
shay’s quote is ludicrous (or seems so to me).
el s (libertarian sympathizer)
Roach,
Also, “recreational use” generally means use that does not carry over or affect one’s job performance. I talk to my boss about my recreational alchol use (which is legal of course) all the time, but she’d probably fire my ass if I showed up drunk to work. I don’t think libertarians would disagree with that idea.
Cops work for the public, and if they are using drugs that may affect their performance (of an incredibly important and potentially violent job), then the government should be concerned and interested. Besides, i think libertarians agree that taking on government jobs like police work, means being held to a higher standard and a certain loss of privacy.
Yet another hypocritcal example. Why weren’t there immediate random mandatory drug tests and heads rolling? People in uniform aren’t criminals, no way no how.
Roach, I’ll bite on your sarcasm. Yes, I agree, they should be legal, just like a lot of personal use items that don’t affect much else other than your own ability to procreate. BUT, finish up with a little honesty instead of whining some b-b-b-b-b excuse that we should be ok with it. If a baseball player, biker, swimmer, etc is a ciminal, so are those cops. Period. So, next time you vote on your fave issue you might think about what REAL affect the thing has on you when the shoe is on the other foot.
I, for one, and thankful and grateful that our congress has made this such a high priority. There is NO other issue more pressing or more of a threat to our country and our way of life than baseball players using steroids. They should focus soley on this issue and no others until it is resolved. I lay awake at night worrying about these folks and the threat they pose to me and my family and our way of life. Thank god we have a congress led by such people who realize what a threat steroid use in professional baseball is. It’s right up there with rock and roll with its satanic influence and has to be dealt with. Did you know that EVERYTIME a baseball player uses steroids, he is helping the terrorists win? Seriously. I hope that as soon as congress and our government fixes this mess, they will immediately focus their attention and efforts on the over choregraphed end zone celebrations that have occurr way too often in the NFL and especially the celebrations for catching 4 and 5 yard passes like it was a Superbowl game winner…something MUST be done about this also! Won’t someone PLEASE think of the children?
Is this coherent to anyone: “BUT, finish up with a little honesty instead of whining some b-b-b-b-b excuse that we should be ok with it. If a baseball player, biker, swimmer, etc is a ciminal, so are those cops. Period. So, next time you vote on your fave issue you might think about what REAL affect the thing has on you when the shoe is on the other foot.”
Roach wants it both ways when attempting to excuse a cop as NOT a criminal when engaging in the exact same behaviour. That’s called hypocritical thinking, is that coherent enough? Specific enough? Every time I see a commercial where the cop gets the stern look and tells me that “if we do the crime, we do the time” it sure as hell pisses me of that he and a large number of cohorts would immediately fail mandatory drug testing across the board on some substance.
Don’t attempt to appeal to people more likely to think cops be held to higher standards rather than less when breaking the law. Period.
“But shouldn’t recreational steroid use be legal in a libertaria world? Aren’t the dangers over-stated? What’s the problem here?” B-b-b-b…apology noted, not accepted.
“…27 NYPD officers cropped up on the client lists of a Brooklyn pharmacy and three doctors linked to a pro sports steroid ring.
Only six of the cops were found to have bought steroids and tested positive for the substance.”
In this rush to judgment, let’s not forget that there *are* legitimate uses for steroids and steroid based treatments. I would need to have a lot more information besides “cropped up on the client lists” before I would summarily convict anyone – cop or baseball player – of illegal drug use.
Shays comment may be even more worrisome. He may have fully succumbed to the idea that private citizens are in a different category than elected officials when it comes to wrongdoing.
The AMA studied steroid use by healthy adult men and only found slight hair loss, sore nipples, and some acne as side effects. HBO sports could not locate a death attributed to steroid use. The show Inside Sports had a surprised reporter because he though there would be cases all over of the dangers of steroid use.
It is an illegal substance unless prescribed because of the Ben Johnson flap and Lyle Alzado (who tried to blame steroid use on his development of cancer, but his own doctor said it was brain cancer and nothing else).
Roid rage is a myth, all male hormones do is intensify a personality – if some jerk takes roids it’ll be more prevalent.
Do some research on them, like any medicine (male hormones are incredibly helpful to fight aging in men) used without guidance of a doctor isn’t advised.
1) Use of steroids to enhance the results of weight training is NOT ILLEGAL. It is prohibited in many competitive sports; law enforcement is not a sport.
2) “Roid rage” is a myth. There is no substantial evidence that steroid use routinely turns men into hyper-violent goons. There is some slight evidence of violent behavior among heavy steroid users – but most of them had previous history of combative and aggressive tendencies.
Hey, if steroids are a ‘performance enhancing’ drug, maybe our Congressmen should rethink this whole persecution thing…
A little performance enhancement might be worth a few fist fights on the Senate floor.
Sorry, prosecution was what I meant. Freudian slip?
As a lifelong weightlifing and observer of gym rat behavior, I looooong ago concluded cops were juicing. The only people who didn’t know this are those who want to believe that an hour in the gymn three days a week will actually put on 25-30 pounds of lean muscle mass on a grown man (age 24+). (ROFLMAO…)
Roid rage is no myth, except if you think it means people become raging killers upon taking steroids. But that is not what the term originally meant. Yes, steroids simply intensify the aggressive tendencies that already exist. Thus it makes mildy aggressive guys aggressive. And aggressive guys tend to become raging @ssholes. And the latter group become nearly psychotic. Everyone who takes the stuff says they suddenly see an uptick in the instances where their tempers get the best of them. Guys who never threw tantrums before find themselves yelling at people. And people who had mild tempers now start swinging at people where they never did before. “Roid rage” refers to these incidents where you find yourself acting out of character. The media later turned that phrase into meaning “psycho-killers wielding chainsaws after taking juice.”
The juice also seems to serve as a general mood elevator to everyone. They feel 18 again, ready for anything and anyone. People say going off the stuff feels like depression. I can believe it. Feelings are often hormonally driven, and increasing testosterone levels likely takes you back to the grand feelings of 18 (without the social awkwarness). And who would want to stop juicing and go from feeling 18 to feeling 35 in a few weeks? Not so bad when you have almost two decades to do it, I know. But in a few weeks?
Does Congress have ‘I was on steroids’ as an excuse when they pass unconstitutional legislation regulating political speech, infringing upon the right to keep and bear arms? Or are they on some narcotic when they fail to pass necessary and proper legislation to fund our soldiers while we are at war, or to protect the US from a flood of illegal alien criminals?
Pot. Kettle. Black.
Congress could use some performance enhancing drugs.
Hrmm. Looks like Megan beat me to it.
.. On baseball’s steroid scandal, all I know is that this kind of thing would never have happened if Bud Selig was still alive.