Doctors, bodybuilders and former steroid abusers told The Courant that inexperienced users tend to take more of the drug than less. They self-medicate, then seek out advice from seasoned users in the online chat rooms of steroid.com and elitefitness.-com.
Ullmann said this suggested that either the chemicals in those samples were old and losing their potency, or that the steroid peddlers had diluted the chemicals to stretch the product, as heroin, cocaine and marijuana dealers are known to do.
"First, you have the labeling problem. If there's no instructions on how many to take in a 24-hour period, it would not be hard to overdose. The whole thing is reckless; it shows poor production. It appears in some cases they weren't careful about how they mixed the compounds.
"It's all very disturbing."