Australian customs still catching steroid shipments from Thailand.

THOUSANDS of steroid tablets have been seized by customs officers at Sydney Airport and a mailing facility during the Christmas break. Figures show that the detection of performance- and image-enhancing drugs (PIEDs) by customs has almost doubled over the past three years. A 65-year-old man had his luggage searched at Sydney Airport on Christmas Day after arriving on a flight from Thailand. Officers found a range of steroids in the man's luggage and strapped to his body, the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS) said on Monday. The man will be prosecuted by summons, a customs spokesperson said. On Boxing Day about 12,000 steroid tablets were seized at the NSW International Mail Facility. The tablets were hidden in a metal elephant statute from Thailand.

Retired Australian Commonwealth Games defends safe steroid use by athletes.

A former Australian Commonwealth Games team doctor has called for sporting authorities to give up on their war against drugs, claiming steroids don't cause harm if they are administered properly. The Lance Armstrong doping scandal has put the issue of drugs in sport back into the spotlight, with most commentators calling for more stringent testing of athletes. However, Dr Tony Millar, the founder of Australia's first sports medicine clinic and St George's doctor for eight of their 11 straight rugby league premierships in the 1950s and '60s, believes athletes should be allowed to take performance-enhancing substances if they are administered by a health professional. ''It doesn't hurt them if they do it properly,'' Millar said. ''The thing they have told me was that they were unfair. Well, they were given to everybody - and that's more than you can say about the world's best coaches and best equipment. They say that people won't watch things but we all know that drugs are used in sports and they're building bigger and bigger stadiums.'' Advertisement Millar was the team doctor for three Commonwealth Games campaigns and was about to stand down from the 1986 campaign, his fourth, for health issues. However, he was sacked before he had the chance after a controversial article he wrote on steroid management was picked up by a medical journal. The 87-year-old, who practised medicine for 67 years before his retirement last year, claims to have administered steroids to as many as 5000 clients as part of a ''harm reduction program''. He denies ever providing steroids to the great Dragons teams he oversaw or to any Commonwealth Games athletes, saying that ''very few'' of his clients were professional athletes. ''I would prescribe these anabolic steroids, monitor you and bring you back when you finished to follow you up to see what happened," said the inaugural City2Surf doctor. ''I didn't have any deaths, no heart problems and I did this for some 20 years. It all depends on what you do with whatever it is. Guns are very dangerous - if you put them up to your head and pull the trigger. But they're not dangerous if you put them in a drawer. ''There are more steroids taken now than there were 30 years ago and there's no evidence of an increased death rate from them.'' The seven Tour de France titles which Armstrong won have been erased from the record books and the cyclist ordered to repay the prizemoney he has won. But as International Cycling Union officials attempt to restore the public's confidence, Millar said testing athletes was a worthless exercise. ''I think it's a waste of time and money when you think how many billions a year it costs,'' he said. ''And we're to give more money to ASADA from the government to test these things. They say they are unfair but you can get them and I could get them. I can't see what's unfair about that. With all that money spent on drug tests, think of what we could have done for the poor. It's become pretty plain to me that [drugs] were being used on the advice of uneducated people. We should be able to do a hell of a lot better with an educated person [administering them].''

Australian doctor in trouble for steroid prescriptions.

An official investigation into anabolic steroid use on the Gold Coast has netted a long-standing GP, who inappropriately prescribed the drugs to 14 patients over more than nine years. Peter Grant, who faces sanctions, has practised as a GP in Queensland since 1985. In late 2009, Queensland Health cancelled his power to prescribe some classes of restricted drugs after the department investigated the GP's practice of writing scripts for medications "for body building rather than therapeutic purposes". Dr Grant's activities came to light when the department conducted a state-wide audit of the dispensing of pseudoephedrine. Advertisement At the same time, the department was conducting an ongoing investigation into anabolic steroid use in the Gold Coast area. Dr Grant agreed he had inappropriately prescribed medications to 14 patients at the Mermaid Beach Medical Centre, according to Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal deputy president Judge Fleur Kingham's recent ruling. The earliest allegation dated back to February 2000, when Dr Grant took on a new patient. "In all he treated him for more than nine years, until April 2009," according to Judge Kingham. "So (a patient) could improve his body physique [for body building purposes ] and his energy levels, Dr Grant prescribed a combination of drugs: Halotestin, Sustanon, Scitropin, Andriol Testocaps, Testosterone implants, Deca-Durabolin and Proviron [which are types of steroids]. "There was no therapeutic basis for prescribing these drugs to him. "In July 2007, he established the patient had low testosterone, which Dr Grant said was a well known side-effect of prolonged steroid use. He thereafter prescribed Sustanon on a weekly basis." By February 2009, Dr Grant was prescribing steroids for 11 of those 14 patients. "By then, it is reasonable to expect that Dr Grant would have been known by members of the body building community as a doctor who was willing to prescribe steroids for body building purposes," Judge Kingham wrote. In his affidavit sworn last month, Dr Grant believed he was not prescribing excessively. In response to a question from his counsel, he said he originally thought it was acceptable to prescribe what he did. Judge Kingham said Dr Grant was a reader of body building publications and preferred these as sources of guidance to "professional sources of information and guidance". "He had a number of clients who competed. He also treated a cage fighter," she said in her decision. "He told the tribunal he knew these drugs could be obtained via the internet. There was a risk that products bought this way might be impure, while those he prescribed were pure. "By prescribing to his patients, he was able to keep an eye on their physical health." Dr Grant believed his patients were seeking the drugs for personal use. "Certainly, if Dr Grant prescribed these drugs with actual knowledge that he was contributing to a trade in steroids, the tribunal would view his conduct more seriously," Judge Kingham stated. Dr Grant conceded a pharmacist had raised concerns that one of the GP's patients was excessively using the drugs. The doctor's explanation was that he was "too weak to say no" to the long-standing patient, which Judge Kingham believed demonstrated his "unprofessional attitude to his responsibilities as a medical practitioner". Dr Grant and the medical board jointly proposed sanctions including a reprimand and conditions that would prevent the GP from dealing with these drugs. QCAT expressed its concerns about the adequacy of the penalty and declared it was "not appropriate" after taking several factors into account including that the conduct occurred over a "very lengthy period". Judge Kingham made five orders. Dr Grant would be reprimanded and his registration would be suspended for 12 months. But the suspension would not take effect if Dr Grant fully complied with conditions imposed on his registration and was not the subject of further disciplinary action for two years. Dr Grant would be required to take a tertiary-level course on prescribing practices, and must not deal with the relevant drugs in any way or "seek the return of his endorsement to do so". He must allow and pay for the board to audit his patient records, nominate a mentor to meet with monthly and provide a copy of the tribunal's orders and reasons to his employer and mentor. Dr Grant would not apply to review the conditions within three years and would pay the board's costs associated with these proceedings.

Australian claims 3kg of Testosterone powder was for personal use.

BULLIED at school for being fat, Brenton Dowell took up bodybuilding but became so obsessed he began illegally importing anabolic steroids from China.

He organised for more than three kilograms of testosterone - enough to last one person more than 60 years - to be mailed to him.

Dowell, 25, of Reservoir, pleaded guilty in the County Court yesterday to three counts of importing anabolic steroids and two counts of possessing the drugs. The maximum penalty is five years' jail and a $110,000 fine.

Prosecutor Ashley Bird said Customs officers had seized three packages containing anabolic steroids between September and November 2010 that Dowell had arranged to be sent from China.

When customs officers raided Dowell's home in 2010, he told them he was training to compete in weightlifting contests.

Prosecutor Ashley Bird said Customs officers had seized three packages containing anabolic steroids in September, October and November, 2010, which Dowell had arranged online to be sent from China.

When Customs officers raided Dowell's home on November 22, 2010, he told them he was using three milligrams of testosterone and three milligrams of decadurabolin a week and had been training to compete in weightlifting competitions.

Dowell told the officers he did not understand "why the government is so harsh on steroids".

A search of his fridge revealed 40 vials of the human growth hormone somatropin and a number of vials of anabolic and androgenic substances.

Ms Bird said the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority's Dr Stephen Watt estimated the general dosage for testosterone propionate was 50-200 milligrams a day, with injections every 1-2 days. The recommended dosage is between 300-700 milligrams a week.

The total amount of active testosterone illegally imported by Dowell was 3181.35 grams - enough to last 3181 weeks or 61 years.

Defence lawyer Len Hartnett said Dowell knew what he was doing was illegal but decided to take the risk.

"It seemed to him to be quite simple to go online and place an order (for steroids)," he said.

Dowell had taken up bodybuilding when he was 16 after being bullied at school and ridiculed for being fat.

"Unfortunately for him it (bodybuilding) really has consumed his life," Mr Hartnett said.

"It's all about body image. It's been an obsession over the years. He's fixated on it."

Mr Hartnett said that since his arrest, Dowell still loved bodybuilding but had stopped taking steroids and was getting his life back on track.

Dowell had had a difficult childhood being the third eldest in a family of 13 children. His father had had children with five different women and his mother had had children with three different men.

At the age of 14 he was homeless but managed to turn his life around and had recently gained a traineeship to be a technician.

Judge Graeme Hicks will sentence Dowell on April 17.

Jeff Hardy arrested for drugs ( steroids, cola etc )

"262 Vicodin prescription pills, 180 Soma prescription pills, 555 milliliters of anabolic steroids, a residual amount of powder cocaine and items of drug paraphernalia."

The press doesn't seem to have noticed that 555ml is rather a large amount of juice, over 50 10ml vials / 500 amps.

Hardy had recently left wrestling to start filming a new reality TV show. Maybe the stash was enough juice to last the duration of the show and get him in shape for his comeback.

This bust makes a mockery of the WWE wellness policy that is supposed to be keeping wrestlers drug free and healthy.

"High risk high reward" or just plain old stupidity ?

Texas Rangers arrest a Boerne trooper on steroid charges

"Highway Patrol Trooper Jeffery Jerman, 33, is charged with delivery of a controlled substance (steroids). He has worked for DPS for nine years."

Australian customs busts female steroid smuggler on flight from Lebanon.

"An attempt by a 36-year-old woman from South Granville to import steroids into Australia by concealing them in objects within her luggage, including a child's doll, has been stopped by Customs and Border Protection officers.

The woman was stopped by Customs and Border Protection officers when she arrived in Sydney on a flight from Lebanon on Sunday 23 August.

After examining the woman's luggage, items including a doll and a box containing a satellite tuner were x-rayed. The x-ray revealed 500 vials concealed within the two items.

Further examination of the luggage revealed an additional 434 vials of steroids."



No matter how well you hide your steroids in your luggage they will still be visible to a state of the art xray scanner :-(

Australian steroids appeal win.

A PIG-HUNTER who pleaded guilty to having more than 1000 steroid tablets has had his convictions set aside on appeal.

Rocco Carnese was fined $3000 for the two charges in October last year but appealed the convictions that Chief Justice Brian Martin ruled as being "manifestly excessive" and not taking into account the loss of his job over convictions.

The Court of Criminal Appeal ruled in favour of Carnese.

The court ruled that the penalties remain but convictions be set aside.