Doping products: a student tried for playing the little chemist

A swollen case… Denis, a business school student, appeared yesterday before the Lyon Criminal Court for “drug trafficking, illegal exercise of the profession of pharmacist and endangering the lives of others”. His fault: to have bought, manufactured and resold doping products acquired illegally on the Internet.

“Little chemist”
Anabolics, testosterone, ephedrine … At 25, this student, keen on bodybuilding, has already dabbled in everything. He regularly orders his products on foreign sites. “Everyone in the bodybuilding industry takes steroids. It’s physiological. Impossible, otherwise, to maintain the volume of muscles, ”he explains to the Parisian. In fact, in two years, thanks to these products, he increases his muscle mass by 15 kilos.

On the strength of his experience, Denis decides to share it with others and begins, in parallel with his studies, a profitable business. “He played the little chemist”, summarizes the public prosecutor. He begins to concoct his own recipes, cocktails of anabolics that he first tests on himself, before reselling them – professional conscience obliges.

The French Alexandre Piel, 2013 world bodybuilding champion, poses next to the products that make up his “sports diet”. Facebook screenshot.

Military and police clients
Despite not very reassuring side effects – palpitations, fever, and even a few rushes of milk – its products have met with some success. Thus, between June 2012 and April 2014, his traffic would have brought him more than 20,000 euros in profits, net of tax. Among his clients, bodybuilding fans, but also military and police. The latter are also accused of having informed him about the operations carried out by Interpol against the dealers of illegal doping products.

Denis joins forces with another student to develop this promising business. Together, they create a website selling t-shirts, which serves as a showcase to sell the mixtures. But despite their good relationship, the doldrums eventually get discovered. At Roissy airport, customs officers intercept a package full of prohibited pills. The address on the package leads them straight to the home of Denis, who has turned his student apartment into a real clandestine laboratory.

The two students face up to five years in prison and a € 375,000 fine, but the prosecution only required “two” suspended years and a € 1,000 fine against Denis. In his defense, the young man, a political refugee, explained that the money collected had only been used to pay for his school, his rent and his expenses. “We are far from the drug dealer who waits in front of the school”, pleaded his lawyer, deploring “the ease of access of the web”. The judgment will be rendered on November 27.

Cardiovascular risks, testicular atrophy
Beyond the purely anecdotal aspect, this case reveals a very widespread practice in the world of bodybuilding: the consumption of anabolics and other doping products. Studies are increasing to identify their toxicity on an increasingly younger audience. All show an increased cardiovascular risk and a deterioration of the lipid profile. In fact, taking steroids is accompanied by a drop in the levels of “good” cholesterol and the levels of Apo-A1, a blood protein responsible for transporting cholesterol to the liver.

Another particularly undesirable effect observed in testosterone users: atrophy of the genitals. Thus, this hormone destroys the gonadotropins, which stimulate the sex glands and allow the natural secretion of testosterone. This results in a very high risk of testicular atrophy. Taken over a long period of time, testosterone is also suspected of causing liver cancer.

The existing literature mentions, jumbled up, the risks of diabetes-2, heart attacks and strokes, tendon ruptures, hair problems, sexual and behavioral disorders (aggressiveness, depression, etc.) linked to consumption of doping products (steroids, growth hormones, testosterone, cortisone, etc.).

>> Watch the France 2 report on the dangers of doping in weight rooms