As long as we are calling out for George Mitchell to investigate doping, he might as well hit up Hollywood too. The Albany Times-Union reports on roods for the raunchy. Recent stories here include Sly Stallone and recording piano artist Tzimon Barto. (Stallone was busted for anabolic steroids and HGH last year in Australia)
The Times-Union names entertainment luminaries:
The names of R&B music star Mary J. Blige, along with rap artists 50 Cent, Timbaland and Wyclef Jean, and award-winning author and producer Tyler Perry, have emerged in an Albany-based investigation of steroids trafficking that has already rocked the professional sports world, according to confidential sources.
The entertainment stars must be using the drugs for appearance, and anti-aging.
...medical experts say that use of steroids and human growth hormone -- an estimated $10 billion-a-year operation worldwide -- reaching into the entertainment industry illustrates how pervasive steroids use in the United States has become. It is not unique to athletics, where performance-enhancing drug use has marred many sports. For many celebrities, the lure of hormonal drugs is their supposed, unproven anti-aging effects.
Just like the MLB players who shipped juice to the ballpark, the stars ship the gear to the gym or the studio or the hotel:
Records shared with the Times Union and information from several cooperating witnesses on Long Island indicate Blige and other stars were shipped prescribed human growth hormone or steroids -- sometimes under fictitious names -- at hotels, production studios, private residences, an upscale Manhattan fitness club and through the Long Island office of Michael Diamond, a chiropractor affiliated with the celebrities, sources said.
Diamond, who has not been identified as a target in the case or accused of breaking any laws, helps run an anti-aging program at Clay Gym in Manhattan, according to the company's Web site.
The Albany investigation became a nationwide spectacle last February when authorities raided a Palm Beach County wellness center and the offices of Signature Compounding Pharmacy in downtown Orlando. The wellness center's owners and the pharmacy's operators are awaiting trial in Albany on charges related to the sale of millions of dollars worth of prescription drugs, mostly steroids, through a suspected criminal enterprise involving allegedly corrupt physicians and a series of anti-aging "clinics" that advertised predominantly through the Internet.
The gym in New York is run by a chiropractor -- Michael Diamond, who must be known to more than a couple stars:
Still, it appears evident Diamond caters to famous clients as evidenced by the many stars, including Steven Seagal, whose photographs -- some autographed to Diamond -- adorn his office's walls.
"Because of this recent development as far as what I found out was going on with (Signature) pharmacy I was approached and I was ... told not to discuss anything right now ... because there's investigations going on," Diamond said, not elaborating.
The Times-Union goes on to discuss the corrupt professionals -- physicians and apparently chiropractors -- who dispense these drugs on bogus grounds. This could use some cleaning up, and New York Senator Charles Schumer plans on pushing a bill to qualify HGH as a controlled substance, like anabolic steroids.
The report contains a delightful quote from our little friend, the Albany DA:
"They're living the lifestyle of the Tony Montanas of the '70s and '80s because they're drug dealers," Soares said, referring to the character made famous by Al Pacino in the movie Scarface. "Our purpose here is more regulation. We want consistency state-to-state and we want tougher regulation over this cyber-economy that right now pretty much anyone with a computer can go out and obtain ... things that shouldn't be obtained without the control or observation of a treating physician."
Ex-Senator Mitchell probably doesn't want any more problems after all the MLB brouhaha. Too bad; he is needed everywhere it seems.
The steroids use by young people combined with the use of false names is definitely a bad thing. I don't know if use of human growth hormone under supervision is such a bad thing for people of Steven Seagal and Sylvester Stallone's age.
Posted by: Jon | 01/14/2008 at 13:45