South Florida may be a source for banned performance-enhancing drugs making their way into major league baseball.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports that the paper has been told by two sources that MLB officials have turned over informationon some doctors and trainers associated with professional ball players to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration:
A host of players have recently tested positive for the steroid testosterone or other drugs associated with steroid use, suggesting to baseball officials that an organized distribution ring could be contributing to the positives. As league officials reviewed the recent cases, one source told the Sun Sentinel, many lines pointed to South Florida, where many players reside in the off-season, train in the spring or travel for treatment when they are injured. The region is known for its so-called wellness or anti-aging clinics, which are largely unregulated by the state of Florida and commonly offer prescriptions for testosterone and human growth hormone—two popular performance-enhancing drugs—as components of anti-aging treatment.
The Sun-Sentinel was told by sources that officials from Major League Baseball have recently been in South Florida collecting evidence and that the DEA is in the early stages of its probe.
