Baseball Prospectus reported Thursday that the labs for Erphogram, the pharmacy that produces 6-OXO, the supplement that J.C. Romero claims caused a false positive on the drug tests that got him suspended for 50 games earlier this month, have been raided by the DEA. The BP story is low on details other than noting that the owner of Erphogram is Patrick Arnold, who you likely remember from the BALCO scandal a few years back.
If you're following along at home, that means that Romero is claiming that he took a supplement made by a lab owned by one of the more notorious chemists in the country. That lab has just been raided by the feds, but that the supplement itself just caused a false positive. Not much of a sob story, if you ask me. Still, maybe MLB did yank his chain a bit by banning 6-OXO after he failed his test.
The best summary I'd seen of the Romero situation was at this blog, where the author guessed that maybe some cross-contamination between Ergopharm products caused Romero to fail his test. Out of curiosity, I went to Ergopharm's website to read up on 6-OXO. This is (and I'm not kidding), an excerpt from their product description:
One of the biggest fears that drives men away from using prohormones or steroids is the prospect of their testicles shrinking. Testicles are at the heart of the self-image of manhood, and the thought of having them shrink away is depressing to say the least! Now with 6-OXO, you can raise your testosterone levels to he-man levels without worrying about things falling apart down under. In fact, if anything, your boys may get a little bigger!!
FINALLY! Er, uh, I mean, here's a blurb about what 6-OXO actually does:
You see, 6-OXO does not work like prohormones do. 6-OXO works by targeting the brain - specifically a part of the brain known as the hypothalamus - prompting it to augment the chemical signal that tells your endocrine system to produce more testosterone. By doing so, 6-OXO works naturally with your body and you avoid all the aforementioned adverse side effects.
The stuff INCREASES YOUR TESTOSTERONE LEVELS. If that doesn't raise a red flag to you as a professional athlete that gets regularly tested for steroids, I'm not sure you even have a red flag.
But hey, J.C., keep on fighting the good fight!
Ergopharm Raided by Feds: J.C. Romero's Story Gets Weirder originally appeared on MLB Main on Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:54:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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