Big Lead Sports Bar

2/28/2007

This Doesn't Sound Good

You've probably heard about the big raid of the Orlando drug lab on Tuesday. But the story seems to have a few more layers, especially layers that will raise some eyebrows in our city.
"Last month, a New York investigator who has been tracking suspicious purchases from Signature Pharmacy flew to Pittsburgh to interview a top physician for the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers about why he allegedly used a personal credit card to purchase roughly $150,000 in testosterone and human growth hormone in 2006."
Keep in mind the fact that the physician, Richard A. Rydze, has the right to order and possess prescriptions. But the oddity here is that Rydze purchased these on his personal credit card.
"The doctors pretty much have rein to do anything they want," said Carmen Catizone, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.

But Catizone, who has served as an expert witness for the DEA and other law enforcement agencies in criminal trials, said the credit card purchases raised questions.

"I've never seen a doctor pull out his or her own credit card ... it just doesn't make sense," Catizone said. "Unless you are trying to build frequent-flier miles on a credit card, I'm not sure why they'd be using a personal credit card."
To this point, the Steelers, as well as Rydze, have denied all requests for comments. Let's hope that Rydze was just trying to build those frequent-flier miles.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

the doc bought the HGH in 2006. the steelers sucked this year. a lot of help that did.

Unknown said...

This story actually made the conflict room site (conflictroom.com) not good for steelers anything to be on there

Andy Rowell said...

I hope people are reading the front page si.com (Sports Illustrated) article.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/03/06/rx.trouble0312/index.html

This does not look good.


Richard Rydze does not sound credible. Why?

1. This HGH doesn't have much medicinal value and he personally bought $150,000
of it on a credit card so he can get it cheap. What?
2. Reportedly 30% of NFL players are using it.
3. It is worth much more on the street than for medical use.
4. His excuse sounds lame. "I treat people early in the morning before my
regular practice." Sure.
5. At a minimum Rydze has shown incredibly bad judgement. And most likely:
Where there is smoke, there is fire.