Oh, dearie me, bodybuilders at it again

Following on from the steroids worry, now it's human growth hormone. Wanna look buffed and ripped? Human growth hormone (HGH) is the stuff for the gym bunnies, steroids are so yesterday. The trouble is, as with steroids, nobody really knows what long-term, high-dose use of HGF will do to you. In the short-term it seems to do the same as steroids, i.e. you can train harder for longer and recover more quickly, thus eventually achieving that coveted look. Huge muscles, little fat and bulging veins so beloved of door operatives like the late Mr Moat. Once again, bodybuilders are proving themselves to be willing human labs, taking the drugs to get the effects they desire before any real research has come out about long-term use and side effects. And, as with other illicit/grey area drugs who is making the stuff and to what standards is unknown. So there are the risks as with steroids of dodgy gear coming out of dodgy labs with little regard for the end user's and the wider public's health. HGH has been implicated in the possible spread of CJD (Mad Cow disease) and as it's injected the usual risks of poor injection hygeine go along with it.

What should we do?

In the short term, don't ban it, regard it as a health not a criminal problem, get researching and if you are using it; make sure you trust your supplier and have a ready access to clean drugs and injecting equipment. Will this happen? Some of it might, guess which though?

BTW - this photo was uploaded from a generic site with no photo credit. No intention to suggest that the guys in the photo are using, have used any drugs.

Sick and Dead

Well, I was (though it pains me to say it) on the money in my last post, especially about Moat's last post. He's dead, killed by his own hand or that of the police, or a mix of both. We've yet to see what part steroids played in his final week but probably not a very significant one.

But what sickens me about the whole sorry saga is the disgraceful behaviour of so many people. If you want to see what a fairly representative selection of the police thought about it visit police blogs. I like PC Bloggs , she's consistently funny and informative and, despite her sometimes snidey comments about the public/media/crims/colleagues I detect (no pun intended) a deep-seated liberal disposition. She mentions 'The Guardian' a lot. But OMG you should read some of the stuff her colleagues write in response to her pieces. Bigoted, racist, stringing up's too good for them and in some cases nauseating self-pity. Yes, the police have a tough job, yes they put their lives on the line, but so do many other public servants.

I couldn't believe the ghastly TV footage of Moat's last minutes, the ghoulish print pictures and articles and now Moat's family queuing up to slag off the police. Actually, given the circs I thought they (the police) did a reasonable job: a) They found him, b) another Whitehaven did not happen, c) no one else was killed. In all probability Moat did kill himself, Tasered or not he would have done so anyway. It's what sociopaths do, it's the ultimate control-freakery because it denies us all the chance to see him in court and satisfy ourselves that he pays the price for his crimes. Shipman did the same. When they do these things i.e. suicide it's the final act of control, cant control anything else, then they control the manner of their death.

Bit of a rant there, just wanted it off my chest.

Roid Rage

Raoul Mote is no doubt a very bad man. He has already killed a police officer, wounded another and his former girlfriend. Today he is still at large, well armed and hiding out in a vast tract of Northumbria, England.

The story, awful though it is, is already following a predictable arc in our media. Inevitably he will be caught or killed - then comes the investigation in to what went wrong. In fact it's already started with the usual whining from the media about why the police haven't caught him yet. Mostly the whining is coming from the very same media who want to see massive cuts in public spending, including the police. But I digress.

The drugs angle? Anabolic Steroids. Allegedly Mote was/is a bodybuilding ex-doorman. As those of his ilk often do he apparently used steroids to assist his gym workouts. What steroids do is allow the body to recover more quickly from heavy exercise than might otherwise be possible - thus increasing the amount and frequency of training and so leading to that bulked up look so favoured of bouncers. The downside? Lots of side effects:

• Raised blood pressure.
• Increased risk of heart and breathing problems.
• Risk of blood-borne diseases through poor injecting technique and hygiene.
• Tiny testicles.
• Mental health problems.

What the media will focus on is 'roid-rage'. Yes, steroids can cause unpredictable mood swings. But what they most likely do is exacerbate pre-existing mental health or emotional conditions. So if you're very angry already, you get angrier still.

We'll see calls for more legislation, a parliament gagging for cheap votes which will support upping the legal costs of using steroids, the inevitable driving underground (further) of steroid use and zero impact on the use of steroids.

So, no change there then huh?