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Athletes Should Beware Of Designer Drugs By Douglas E. Rollins SUNDAY November 30, 2003 "Detecting the Undetectable," an article appearing in the Nov. 18 Salt Lake Tribune by Janet Rae Brooks, is a shocking commentary on the status of amateur and professional athletics in the United States and throughout the world. But the sudden appearance of the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG, should be a wake-up call for athletes of all abilities and ages who consider improving their athletic chances by taking an untested, unregulated product. A designer steroid is made in a clandestine laboratory. Many start their life outside of the United States. A skilled chemist changes the structure of a known steroid through a series of chemical reactions into one that cannot be easily detected by routine urine drug-testing procedures. The chemist doesn't know if the product will be effective in building muscle strength, and certainly doesn't know if the product is safe. But these issues don't keep him from selling it to unsuspecting athletes. That's where the danger lies. A foreshadow of what can be expected from designer steroids is seen by turning the pages of illicit drug history back to 1982 and the production of methyl-phenyl-tetrahydropyridine, or MPTP. A home chemist was trying to make an analog of Demerol, a commonly used narcotic, for sale on the streets as a "designer heroin." A by- product of this synthesis was MPTP, a chemical now known to be extremely toxic to the brain. The percentage of MPTP formed while making the "designer heroin" was dependent on reaction conditions that were not well-controlled. Unfortunately, the guinea pigs in the safety testing were the first unsuspecting young people who were sold the drug as a potent, undetectable, new form of heroin. The results were devastating. Within a week. the users became afflicted with a severe form of Parkinson's disease. All suffered a slow death. Clandestine chemists will make designer steroids as long as athletes are willing to take untested and unregulated products to improve their performance. There are potentially hundreds of steroids that could flood the locker rooms. But the safety of these illicit chemicals will never be known. Safety testing would be expensive and would forewarn of the drug's presence. The scenarios are frightening. A toxic epidemic is likely. It probably won't be Parkinson's disease, but it could be cancer, intractable infertility, fatal liver disease or damage to fetuses. There's a saying that "History repeats itself." Parents, family, friends, coaches and trainers should be aware of what athletes are using to boost their strength or endurance. If it's a designer drug, or any other untested product, tell them about the MPTP story. ----- Douglas E. Rollins, M.D., Ph.D., is a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Utah. He was medical director for doping control for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. SOURCE: Salt Lake Tribune, UT http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Nov/11302003/commenta/115653.asp Reference: MPTP and Drug-Induced Parkinson's Disease http://www.mydr.com.au/default.asp?Article=3299 Overnight, Addicts Get Parkinson's, Scientists Get Breakthrough http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/mptp01.shtml Cognitive Change Following MPTP Exposure http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/40/2/261 The Case of the Frozen Addicts $13.00 New* by J. William Langston M.D., Jon Palfreman (Paperback - July 1996) A factual account of the medical mystery that occurred in the Silicon Valley in 1982 when a group of illicit drug users exhibited the symptoms of advanced Parkinson's disease after ingesting the toxic chemical MPTP. The book chronicles their "frozen" state and how this tragic event led to some important discoveries about Parkinson's disease. http://tinyurl.com/x5qs * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn