This is Copp’s take on things though. Why is there no official word from the CSAC? Have they been contacted? Do they refuse to respond? What’s the deal?

but throughout the country there are various clinics (usually anti-aging places) where such products are widely available for those with a legitimate (or even quasi-legitimate) medical need, but aside from truly high-end (read: cash only) private practices, they are not readily available to others with no obvious need and, even then, it is very difficult to get them for PED purposes (as a competitive athlete) because of the enormous legal, financial and career risk to the doctors if/when they are caught.

Now, if you’re the over-worked, over-stressed CEO of a local business, sure, a medical need can probably be found if you are willing to look hard enough, but for pro, collegiate and high school athletes those places are generally not an option because of the potential for bad publicity inherent when testing is involved.

As an aside, I’m sure there are modern day BALCO’s (I don’t run in those circles), but if they are the real deal, that knowledge stays within their close-knit, referral-only circles. If you’ll recall, it was a revenge/falling-out that led to BALCO’s product being discovered.

Of course, just as I could go into any decent sized city and score coke or heroin within a few days (if not hours), I could do the same thing with most PEDs. However, as with all drugs bought outside the mainstream controls, at the end of the day one has no idea what they are actually buying – what strength it really is, where and how it was made, how it has been stored/handled and what it has been cut with.

Along those same lines, it is my considered opinion that many of the athletes we see busted for steroids and think "WTF was that idiot thinking…how did they imagine themselves NOT getting caught for something so obvious" are actually a result of them not getting the product they thought they were buying (i.e. either getting a steroid with a far longer half life than the one "labeled" on the vial they thought they were getting or, more commonly, getting a steroid variant when they thought they were getting (considerably more expensive) hGH…).

I meant if he was (or claiming he was) undergoing TRT.

during the weigh-in/weight cutting cycle, which largely uses the bodies systems contra what they are normally used for those levels change considerably, but nothing like 5000%…then again, I’m not a physician and, while quite well versed with the practical aspects and basic medical systems and testing aspects of these subjects, I lack the expertise to tackle that one on my own. If you do come across anything cited, I would greatly appreciate a link if you think of it.