New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow announced a series of reforms intended to eliminate the abuse of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone by New Jersey law enforcement personnel. The recommendations come as a response to a sensationalistic Newark Star-Ledger investigative expose that revealed the names of several police officers on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) after reviewing the private prescription records from the medical practice of Joseph Colao. The newspapers alleged that the late Colao falsified diagnoses and wrote bogus prescriptions for anabolic steroids such as testosterone.
The initiatives proposed by Attorney General Dow are designed to keep unscrupulous physicians from prescribing anabolic steroids and hGH to individuals (specifically cops) for bodybuilding and/or anti-aging purposes. It provides official state guidelines authorizing police departments to randomly test officers for steroids, if they have “reasonable suspicion” that an officer is using steroids or as part of a “fitness for duty” evaluation.
Law enforcement personnel in New Jersey will be required to self-report the use of and any prescriptions for anabolic steroids and hGH; they will also be required to submit a note from their physician stating the steroids are being prescribed for a legitimate medical condition while verifying their “fitness for duty”.
The State of New Jersey is also hoping to make all personnel obtain their steroids via the mail-order pharmacy Medco. New Jersey has an business agreement with Medco to operate as their state pharmacy benefits manager. This also gives New Jersey big-brother-type oversight over any anabolic steroids used by its employees.
The reaction to the Attorney General’s proposals was mixed. Prosecutors from various New Jersey counties were thrilled with the reforms.
Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli praised reforms announced recently by Attorney General Paula Dow to combat steroid use in law enforcement, saying it will allow law enforcement executives throughout the county greater flexibility in confronting what has been a complex problem. […]
“Now, a law enforcement executive — a prosecutor, a police chief — now it doesn’t matter if the police officer is showing up and performing his or her duties,” he said. “If non-prescribed steroid use exists, we can now not only do something, we have an obligation to do something. It gives executives more tools — so we’re not waiting to see something happen that’s wrong.”
Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes, a member of Dow’s study group that recommended the reforms, said Thursday that there was “no question” steroid testing would be put in place in Passaic County police departments. Molinelli echoed her statement, saying that police departments across Bergen County welcome the reforms.
“The overall concept of allowing law enforcement executives to be more aggressive in this area is a very huge and positive step forward,” he said.
However, the Newark Star-Ledger Editorial Board was highly disappointed that AG Dow did not propose more forceful and mandatory reforms in reaction to their George Polk Award-winning expose that blew the lid off the “hidden world of steroid use and fraud among law enforcement officers across New Jersey.”
And in New Jersey, there’s a particularly pressing need to test Officer Beefcake, because a Star-Ledger investigation uncovered synthetically engineered colossal cops bulking up on taxpayer money.
While some people say they want cops to be stronger than the bad guys, a ’roided-up cop puts citizens and fellow officers in danger and tarnishes a profession already struggling for credibility in some areas.
Pro-steroid citizens probably would change their minds if a cop, in ’roid rage, slammed someone’s head into the hood of a car during a traffic stop. Abusers of anabolic steroids are prone to aggressive behavior
— a terrifying condition with officers carrying firearms, driving at high speeds and making split-second, life-and-death decisions.
The Newark Star-Ledger, rather than advocate changes in public policy based on science, is perpetuating the nationwide hysteria concerning phenomena identified as “roid rage” in popular culture. The newspaper perpetuates the myth that uncontrolled and irrational aggression is a common, if not unavoidable, side effect of anabolic steroids.
The available scientific evidence does not support anything more than a tenuous causal link between anabolic steroids and aggression in humans. There is a notable lack of scientific support for the existence of “roid rage”; if roid rage exists at all, it occurs in a small minority of steroid users.
About Millard Baker