At the risk of appearing too obviously obsessed with 'roids, we ask the question: Was the Juice juiced? Probably not.
Back during the original OJ trial, forensic physicians considered the possibility that OJ acted in a 'roid rage. If I Did It (If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer; author=Simpson/Goldman) discusses a 'blackout period" (from a Fox News columnist):
There were a lot of theories about how he did it and lived with himself afterward. Apparently, in the unpublished book he says he had a "black out" period — if he did it.
One theory that I (the writer, not Simpson) came to subscribe to was supplied by a freelance writer and his brother, who was a Harvard forensic psychiatrist. To this day it makes the most sense: Simpson was having steroid rage. This wasn’t from being on steroids, but from getting off of them. He’d been addicted to them for years when he took a pounding in football and stuck with them later for rheumatoid arthritis.
That line of thinking mixes up anabolic steroids and corticosteroids: one group could produce the more typical aggressiveness none to PED abusers; the other group produces euphoria or dysphoria, however not known so much for 'roid rage. Continuing down the anti-inflammatory (corticosteroid, or prednisone-related line of reasoning):
A lot of different details added up to this conclusion. For weeks, Resnick’s boyfriend, Christian Reichardt, had been weaning Simpson off the steroids with a fruit drink that Simpson promoted in a TV infomercial. Reichardt told me this had begun in late March, early April 1994. By June 12, Simpson was probably not feeling too well. Erratic outbursts, extreme emotions — these were indications that his withdrawal was not a success.
In the infomercial, made March 31, 1994, which was entered into evidence but never pursued, Simpson recalls "They had me on — you name it — Naprosyn, Indocin, Motrin, I, I had so much Motrin you couldn't believe it, you know.”
Simpson was 'withdrawing' from the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories he used to relieve osteoarthritis pain. The theory postulates that Simpson suffered from symptoms of withdrawal including sweats, and erratic psychotic behavior.
Then he (Simpson) talks about the miraculous turn around in his life from drinking Juice Plus: “And then before I knew it, I just start skippin' the Naprosyn and skippin the Indocin and skippin the pain pills, uh, the Advil. I mean I was one of these guys who was on six or seven Advils a day, you know, until today when I don't have to take anything.”
For some reason, no one bothered to ask the doctor what the effect would be of no longer taking all those drugs. And no one asked Dr. Robert Huizenga — a doctor whose specialty was steroids and athletes — one word on that subject as well.
Simpson, I learned from the FBI lab in Washington, had been tested for eight different kinds of drugs but not for steroids when he was arrested.
My sources’ claims, they say, were further emphasized by the Bronco “chase.” Al Cowlings, who’d been in the car with Simpson, described to a writer he’d hired for a book proposal that Simpson had been sweating like crazy in the car. His face had turned “golden,” Cowlings recalled. Sweat poured from him. Simpson was so incoherent that he let Cowlings do the talking for him.
The chase was on June 15. Three days earlier, Simpson had returned to L.A. from a visit to Chicago. Howard Weitzman had been his lawyer. Dr. Bertram Maltz , now deceased, had been his long-term physician.
When Weitzman handed over the reigns to Robert Shapiro, the first thing Shapiro did was get rid of Maltz and bring in Dr. Huizenga. Huizenga had just published a book on the subject (steroids), as physician for the L.A. Rams.
Dr. Huizenga tested the Juice for juice, something the FBI negligently forgot to do:
Huizenga testified in the trial that he tested Simpson for several drugs, among them anabolic steroids. All the tests came back negative. The FBI lab had tested Simpson a couple of days earlier for the same drugs, without the steroid component. During the trial, a Harvard forensic psychiatrist with a connection to the case conjectured to me that Simpson might have killed his ex-wife Nicole and Ron Goldman in some kind of steroid rage. Huizenga says now that it's unlikely based on the tests.
"Of course, the original tests had much higher detectable limits. We set ours much lower. Look at all the pictures that were taken. They were all from my office. All the cuts on his hands, none of that would have been known without us. They" — he said, referring to the police and FBI — "did a terrible job."
Although a possibility, the odds OJ suffered from 'roid rage, remain a long shot at best. The Juice displayed road rage, however it seems unlikely he suffered 'roid rage.
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