Here is the best article I found about the whole issue.
October 26, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/26/sports/football/26steroids.html
Merriman and Nandrolone: A 2006 Riddle
By
MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
The steroid that a lawyer for
San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman said was found in Merriman’s urine cannot be legally obtained in the United States.
The lawyer, David Cornwell, said the steroid nandrolone ended up in Merriman’s system from a tainted supplement. But under National Football League rules, players are responsible for positive tests regardless of the products they take.
Nandrolone has been banned in supplements since 1990, and precursors to it, such as 19-norandrostenedione, have been prohibited since January 2005. Nandrolone’s precursors could be found in old supplements or in products from other countries where the product is not banned, according to drug-testing experts.
Merriman, 22, was the 2005 defensive rookie of the year and has become a pass-rushing force for the Chargers, with 15½ sacks in his first 21 games as a pro. He is still playing while appealing a four-game suspension for his violation of the league’s substance-abuse policy. A hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 7.
“I don’t think there’s a player in the National Football League that doesn’t use nutritional supplements,” Cornwell told reporters earlier this week. “They don’t realize that they’re playing Russian roulette with their career. You have manufacturers out there that are putting bullets essentially into the canisters for these supplements, and they’re not being held accountable.”
Cornwell refused to name the supplement or the manufacturer in Merriman’s case, and he would not say whether it was on the list of league-certified products.
The use of largely unregulated over-the-counter supplements is so widespread that the N.F.L. certifies as free of prohibitive substances five products made by Experimental and Applied Sciences Inc., of Golden, Colo. The products include bars, drinks and powders marketed under the Myoplex brand.
Adolpho A. Birch III, who oversees the N.F.L.’s drug testing, said players would be held accountable for positive tests regardless of the supplements they were taking.
“The league provides tested supplements that are assured they are not tainted,” Birch said. “If you choose to take another supplement, you do so at your own risk. If you take a supplement that is not certified under the program, you and you alone are responsible for the consequences of the result.”
He added: “We say that the products under our certification program have been tested for accuracy of labeling and purity and will not result in a positive test.”
If the supplement in Merriman’s case contained nandrolone, the manufacturer would be in violation of federal law, said Dr. Gary I. Wadler, an associate professor of medicine at
New York University who also works with the World Anti-Doping Agency.
“They are not supposed to have that in a dietary supplement,” Wadler said. “The only way to get the drug legally is through a legitimate prescription for a disease in a bona fide patient-doctor relationship.”
Wadler said it was unlikely that dietary supplements sold over the counter would include the steroid’s precursor.
Individuals can inject themselves with an oil that includes nandrolone, but that has not been a popular method for 20 years, Wadler said. Such an injection kept the steroid in the body for up to a year and would not be the preferred choice of an athlete subjected to frequent testing.
Dr. Donald H. Catlin, the director of the Olympic drug-testing laboratory at U.C.L.A., which also handles testing for the N.F.L. and other organizations, said positive tests for nandrolone across all sports peaked in 2001.
“Out of the 40,000 tests we do a year, there were 56 cases of nandrolone across all our tests in 2001,” he said. “They started to pick up in the late 1990’s.”
He said there were 28 positive tests last year.
Catlin said people should be cautious when buying over-the-counter supplements.
“You can buy them at a very reputable store, and you can buy them off the Internet, and they may be made anywhere,” he said. “There are a lot of people out there. This is a big business. There are a lot of people that prey on athletes.”
Cornwell challenged the league over how the information about Merriman’s drug test became public. He said that someone working for the league violated confidentiality provisions of the drug-testing policy by leaking the information. He said the person who revealed the information could face a $500,000 fine. Greg Aiello, a spokesman for the N.F.L., declined to comment on the issue of the leak.
The N.F.L. administers about 10,000 tests for performance-enhancing drugs to about 1,800 players a year. Each player is tested at least once a year, but most are tested multiple times a season. Players are selected randomly for testing, about seven players per team each week during the season. Each player may be tested as many as six times during the off-season.
Since 1989, when the N.F.L.’s testing for performance-enhancing drugs began, about 60 active players, and about 60 players who retired or were cut before their results were determined, have tested positive. So far this year, four or five players have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, Aiello said.
In comparison, Major League Baseball began testing for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. Through Sept. 25, two major league players had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs this season. In 2005, 12 tested positive.
