Scott A. Corliss, 55, pleaded guilty back in January 2008 to withholding information about a conspiracy to write prescriptions for anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing substances. U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade sentenced him Friday to a year of probation.

His guilty plea led to criminal charges against the owners and pharmacists at Mobile-based Applied Pharmacy Services, several doctors they worked with and two men who owned health clinics that marketed steroids to athletes and other healthy people.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Donna Dobbins asked for leniency on behalf of Corliss, saying he provided documents to investigators that they did not have and offered crucial testimony during a five-week trial at the beginning of this year.

“You saw his demeanor,” Dobbins told Granade. “You saw how difficult this was for him.”

Dobbins said prosecutors reached out to the Greeley, Colo., doctor first because they determined he was the least culpable figure in the conspiracy. He said his motivation was not greed, but a genuine desire to slow down the aging process. He said he regrets continuing to write prescriptions even when presented with patients who did not meet the proper criteria.

“I cannot adequately express the remorse I have for allowing myself to become involved in this,” he said. “I compromised my own judgment. I didn’t listen to that voice inside my head that warned me not to go down that path.”

Corliss forfeited $12,000 as part of his plea bargain.

Mark William Rainbow, 43, was sentenced in Auckland District Court after earlier admitting breaches of the Medicine Act 1981 including importing, possessing and supplying prescription and other medicines.

Rainbow imported medicines from Thailand in May 2008 that had been concealed in bottles falsely labelled “Gay Lube Oil”.

The contents were then transferred into bottles labelled with the name of Rainbow’s trading company, SSIS Pharmaceuticals. The products he sold were not of a pharmaceutical standard and their lack of quality assurance posed a real risk to those using them.

Medsafe investigators, working with customs and police, found Rainbow supplied these unapproved medicines to at least three people.

Arisa Pantaeng, 29, was found to be carrying pink, hexagonal-shaped tablets in cut-off stockings down her pants while others were in her carry-on luggage when she was searched by Customs officers at Melbourne Airport in April.

She had arrived on a flight from Bangkok and failed to declare the tablets.

Pantaeng was held in custody for five days and the mother of two was subsequently charged with importing a tier 2 good.

Her lawyer, Deanna Caruso, described the experience in Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday as ”harrowing”.

Ms Caruso told magistrate Jack Vandersteen that steroids were readily available and openly used in Thailand, and that her client was unaware importing them was illegal.

Pantaeng, who had no prior convictions, moved to Australia on a spousal visa and planned to marry her fiance, Theoredahl ”Todd” Shannon, before the end of the year, the court heard. Mr Shannon was unaware of the importation.

Mr Vandersteen said he was not convinced Pantaeng did not know what she was doing was wrong considering she tried to hide the tablets and failed to indicate she was carrying them on her Customs form. He convicted her and fined her $1000.

”You served five days in custody, which no doubt would have been a terrifying experience for you – not only because it’s your first time in custody, but because of your cultural differences and language barriers,” he said.

Original Source

It is a far cry from the macho image of bodybuilding but Ms Bradley and her counterparts are determined to convince the world that a muscular woman is a thing of beauty. The female side of the sport has seen a rise in popularity in the “figure” discipline over the past two years. Unlike the “physique” event, entrants are not expected to perform the same clenched fist, bicep-curling poses as men and can express themselves in more “girly” costumes.

It was the appearance last week of Hollie Walcott, 26, sister of the Arsenal winger Theo, at the British Natural Bodybuilding Federation regional qualifiers that cast the spotlight on to a largely ignored side of the industry. However, while Ms Walcott excelled in second position in the “figure” discipline, Ms Bradley walked away with the top prize in her first competition.

Now the pair, who have a firm Facebook friendship, are both set to go head to head at the national championships next month in Glasgow.

Behind the bamboo blinds of her fitness studio, sandwiched between the genteel shops and pensioners’ hairdressers of a sleepy seaside town, Ms Bradley demonstrates her skills.

A diminutive figure at 5ft 2in and a little over 8st, she steps forward to a barbell before gingerly resting it on her back. Slowly she squats, the muscles of her back, arms and legs rippling as she confidently lifts a weight that would leave most men red faced and defeated. She can “dead lift” two-and-a-half times her weight (135kg) from the floor. “I get teased a lot in the gym by the guys. They see what I am lifting and try but can’t do it,” she said.

Both women insist they are battling the media-fed image of grotesque women pumped up on steroids. It is one of the reasons they have chosen to compete in the BNBF, an association that not only insists that competitors are urine tested but also expects them to undergo a polygraph test.

With her tousled blonde hair and carefully made up eyes, Ms Bradley is adamant there is nothing unfeminine about taking part in bodybuilding. Her tiny waist would be the envy of most women but from there her body rises up in a triangle to wide, well-defined shoulders. In one of her key poses, she stands on tiptoes and flares her bulging arms, like a ferocious bird of prey poised to attack. A size 8, she has to buy larger shirts unless they are sleeveless.

“I know the look is not for everybody but it is feminine and gives you curves. I am really tiny and healthy. I look at my body as a project,” Ms Walcott said. “At first my partner [gymnast Ryan Amos] was not sure. He thought it was too much but now he loves it.”

It was Ms Bradley’s boyfriend, Jean-Pierre Ulldemolins, who got her into the sport. He is a bodybuilder, too.

While she concedes that her older brother took some convincing, her parents were cheering at the front of the qualifying round she won last month.

Theo Walcott has been similarly supportive of his sister: “I shocked him,” Hollie Walcott said. “He knew I trained but I don’t think he realised how serious I was. We talk on the phone but go months without seeing each other. He was shocked when he saw me but he is really proud of me. He wants to come to a competition but they are always when he is playing football.”

Vicky McCann is chair of the BNBF and one of the country’s top female bodybuilders at 41. A competitor in the more muscular physique section, she is adamant it too is feminine but acknowledges it has yet to shake off taboos.

“It is harder for women; we are not genetically designed to get lean and it takes a long time to build muscle. Women are afraid to do it but it is the best way to get leaner. You are not going to turn into a man. I am tiny. People often say to me, ‘I don’t want to look like a bodybuilder but I wouldn’t mind looking like you,’ which is a bit deflating,” she said. “Bodybuilders don’t get the respect they deserve. In America it is seen as positive but in Britain it is a bit stigmatised.”

Ms McCann is determined to shake off the image that it is a drug-induced, body-abusing discipline and set up the BNBF in 2000 to promote a healthier image. It is one of the reasons, she believes, that more women have been attracted, though she admits she is worried that many female competitors feel the need for breast implants.

“In this year’s competition we have eight male competitors over 60 and one over 70. They are testimony to how natural bodybuilding is a healthy lifestyle. These guys are fit,” she said.

Certainly, Ms Bradley observes her regime with the obsession of an Olympic athlete. At just 20 years old she set up a personal fitness business in her father’s old art gallery in Broadstairs, Kent and speaks with Spartan-like determination about the 10-week programme before a competition.

Ms Bradley dropped a stone in weight before the recent qualifier, on a strict regime of oats, turkey, salmon, egg whites, broccoli and apples, consumed about every three hours. Should she be invited to a celebration such as a wedding, she explained, she takes a packed lunch and forgives herself a small diet drink. Like Ms Walcott, she very rarely drinks alcohol.

Four times a week she goes through a gruelling hour-long session lifting weights, alternating between lighter fast reps and fewer lifts of weights from 72.5kg to 135kg.

For Walcott, a strict vegan, her regime is entirely different but equally dedicated, despite having two children, five-year-old Seb and three-year-old Aurora. “I train when I can find time,” she said. “My son and daughter love it and stand next to me and do poses. Seb says to other children, ‘My mum’s really strong.’”

Their male counterparts have welcomed them into the sport, Ms Bradley said: “I have had so many comments from men saying well done, great shape, you look great. There is good professional respect. We have had to work as hard as them if not harder. Women have more body fat than men and we don’t have the testosterone levels.”

Competitive and sporty from school, where she was called “rugby legs”, Ms Bradley has always been the girl that offered to arm-wrestle boys.

“If people think it is masculine it doesn’t bother me,” she says. “I love the way I look. It says health and strength and I am comfortable in my body, proud of it. I get compliments from men all the time. If people have said [negative] things, I have not heard them.”

Buoyed by their new success and the prospect of competing in next month’s national finals, both Ms Bradley and Ms Walcott believe adamantly that the time is ripe for Britain to embrace female bodybuilders.

“There are still a lot of taboos around women bodybuilding,” Ms Walcott said. “It is not about getting muscular and taking steroids. It is a competitive sport and it needs to be taken seriously. I train like an athlete, I train hard.”

Original Source

A major survey conducted in secondary schools has found 2.4 per cent of 12 to 17 year olds reported using the muscle enhancing injections.

Dr Matthew Dunn, a researcher at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), said this was a much higher usage rate than that seen across the population.

“It’s low when we compare it to groups such as body builders and weightlifters,” Dr Dunn told AAP.

“… but the general population prevalence of steroid use is 0.1 per cent, so its quite a lot higher than that.”

Dr Dunn analysed data collected as part of a broader survey on substance abuse, which took in about 22,000 students from 376 secondary schools across the country.

Teens who admitted to past steroid use were also more likely to report experimenting with other illicit substances, such as cannabis.

They tended to report lower scholastic performance, were usually male and not always involved in sporting activities.

Dr Dunn said their reported steroid use was also irregular – often “one or two times in the last year” – meaning it would not have had the intended effect.

“If you are going to be using steroids you need to be using them in cycles, engaging in physical activity and watching your diet as well,” he said.

“This use is so infrequent that it is just trying something, not seeing a result from it, and moving on.”

Dr Dunn said the research highlighted the need for drug and alcohol education programs in schools to not have a sole focus on recreational drugs.

School sport and athletics programs should also highlight the risks involved in steroid abuse, he said.

“For those that are in sporting clubs, and getting involved in the gym, we probably do want some sort of targeted education and prevention initiative,” Dr Dunn said.

The data was released at the NDARC’s annual symposium, held at the University of NSW this week.

Original Source

The Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB), US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and law enforcement officers from other countries are working together to clamp down on the problem.

The markets are in Asia, the US, Europe, South America and Australia, said Sangsuraya Karnasut, commander of NSB Division 1.

A coordinator for Siwapong Pattanapongpanich, a NSB superintendent involved in campaigns to clamp down on illegal steroids, said Thailand had become a major production base for steroids.

The substance is popular among professional athletes who want to quickly build muscles and strength. It is considered a controlled substance in many countries. In the US, possessing it is subject to punishment by narcotics law putting it in the same category as marijuana possession.

But Thai law treats illegal steroids differently. Its production comes under food and drug laws which allow for more lenient punishments than the Narcotics Act which can be used to impose the maximum penalty of a death sentence. The maximum penalty for violating food and drug laws is a jail sentence.

This leniency in Thailand’s steroid prohibition laws, and the drug’s popularity with athletes, lures both foreigners and locals to use the kingdom as a base to produce and sell them, said Pol Maj Gen Sangsuraya. He said chemicals used to make steroids were not hard to find.

The coordinator for Pol Col Siwapong, who requested anonymity, said steroids were also not difficult to produce. Making steroids requires some expertise but producers do not have to be specially trained chemists.

A recent crackdown by authorities underlined concerns about the problem.

On July 30, the NSB, the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) raided a house on Soi Charoen Krung 79 and four other places in the capital.

They found illegal steroids in tubes and bottles altogether worth about 100 million baht.

Working on the information provided by the DEA, the NSB spent about two years trying to track this network.

An American based in Hong Kong was believed to have financed the operation by hiring Thais, including Rung Sunthornkanit, 41, to produce and deliver it after orders were sent to a website and money had been transferred.

Ms Rung confessed to police after the arrest, Pol Maj Gen Sangsuraya said. She faces five charges under food and drug laws.

Orders from foreign clients were worth from 4 million to 7 million baht a month, the office said. One small bottle of a steroid made for 100 baht in Thailand can be sold for US$100 (3,200 baht) in the US.

In another case, the NSB spent a year investigating the activities of Kim Roger Ericsson, a 29-year-old Swede who lived with his Thai wife in a large house in Klaeng district of Rayong.

Mr Ericsson had long been suspected as a steroid trader by selling the substance mainly to the US. The DEA and Swedish police alerted the NSB. Mr Ericsson was also believed to buy steroids from Thai suppliers and sell them to his clients on the internet.

Authorities heard about suspicious activity in recent months at his house, which stands on two rai. The Swede was allegedly transforming his garage into a drug-making laboratory.

Despite having reliable information about Mr Ericsson’s plan, NSB police and ONCB officials decided to wait until there was evidence to arrest him.

They said police found out the Swede planned to make his first batch of crystal methamphetamine on July 14, and decided to raid the house that night after the production process had begun.

Pure, concentrated ice was found in the freezer of the refrigerator during the raid, in addition to liquid and books detailing the production process, according to officials. Mr Ericsson was charged with producing crystal methamphetamine for sale

Original Source

They will all appear at Whitehaven Magistrates Court on Wednesday, July, 14.

The charges follow a long-running investigation, codenamed Operation Claxton, run by Cumbria police’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit.

Peter Henry Farquhar, 52, of Pattaya in Thailand, originally from Whitehaven, was arrested at Heathrow Airport on December 22 last year, as he entered the country on a flight from Thailand.

He has been jointly charged with conspiring to facilitate the concealment, transferral and removal of criminal assets from the UK. Mr Farquhar was also charged with fraudulently evading the duty payable on items imported into the UK from abroad.

He had previously been charged with two connected counts of defrauding the Department for Work and Pensions following a joint investigation between the DWP and Cumbria Constabulary.

This case is currently progressing through the judicial system and Farquhar has already appeared at Carlisle Crown Court in connection with these two offences.

Police have also charged five people, all from Egremont, in connection with money laundering.

Paul Short, 39, of The Willows, has been jointly charged with Anthony Thomas Norman, 42, of The Larches, and Jenny Dalton, 44, also of The Larches, for conspiring to facilitate the concealment, transferral and removal of criminal assets from the UK and fraudulently evading the duty payable on items imported into the UK from abroad.

Philip Burney, 48, of Clintz Road, was jointly charged with Yvonne Burney, 36, also of Clintz Road, for conspiring to facilitate the concealment, transferral and removal of criminal assets from the UK and two counts of possessing a class C drug (steroids) with intent to supply.

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