Dan Duchaine
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Daniel "Dan" Duchaine (1952 - January 12, 2000) was a former American bodybuilder, author, two time convicted felon and philosopher. Nicknamed The Steroid Guru, Duchaine gained worldwide notoriety due to his outspoken opinions on the use of performance enhancing drugs, and made numerous television appearances discussing the subject on shows such as 20/20, Geraldo and 60 Minutes. [1] Duchaine was found dead on January 13 2000 by his close friend Shelley Hominuk in his apartment in Southern California. Examiners established Duchaine died the day before, aged 47, due to kidney failure caused by hereditary polycystic kidney disease.
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[edit] Duchaine and steroids
Duchaine began competitive bodybuilding whilst at college in New England in 1977, however after he had no luck, (describing himself as a "miserable bodybuilder") he began using anabolic steroids. However after beginning their use he said "I still wasn't very good. Obviously something wasn't working, and the doctors and the pharmacists couldn't really answer my questions. So I started looking into steroids on my own." This was the start of the quest for knowledge that would eventually land him the title of "Guru" on the subject.
Duchaine said at first that he would not sell steroids because he didn't know where to get them. Then after a messy divorce from his first wife left him with nothing he met someone with the ability to acquire them and began selling. Initially he began by undercutting the local dealers, then moving into wholesale, however eventually he became part of a major trafficking ring from Mexico, as he co-founded Laboratories Milano in Tijuana, which at the time was the largest black market steroid manufacturing plant in Mexico. In the middle of 1987 he was caught and indicted on conspiracy and mislabelling charges.
That year Duchaine pleaded guilty on two counts for his part in the steroid distribution ring and was sentenced to a maximum of three years in Federal prison with five years of probation by Judge J. Lawrence Irving of San Diego Federal Court. [2]
Duchaine was released after ten months, however in 1991 whilst still on probation he met up with a friend who was selling Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (commonly known as GHB) and began working with him. One of their customers however, was an undercover Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agent and Duchaine was convicted a second time and sentenced to another 36 months in prison. Whilst in prison he says he learnt to make money through legitimate avenues. [3]
In 1988, Duchaine first introduced Clenbuterol to bodybuilders. Duchaine is also credited with introducing dinitrophenol (DNP) into bodybuilding when he spoke of the illegal substance in an interview on one of ten cassettes included with bodybuilding magazine Muscle Media 2000 (better known as MM2K), that featured Duchaine and other claimed bodybuilding experts.
[edit] Career
In 1992 after being released from prison for a second time Duchaine began working for Bill Phillips' magazine MM2K writing a monthly Q&A column called Ask the Guru. By this time Duchaine had published several books in his Underground Steroid Handbook series (see below) and referred to himself as a Human Performance Theorist [4]
[edit] Quotes
- "If you can't grow on Deca and Dbol, you can't grow on anything!" - taken from Duchaine's Dirty Dieting Newsletter in 1997
[edit] Duchaine's books
- Duchaine, Dan. The Original Underground Steroid Handbook, 1981
- Duchaine, Dan. Underground Steroid Handbook, 1983
- Duchaine, Dan. Underground Steroid Handbook II HLR Technical Books, 1988.
- Duchaine, Dan. Underground Body Opus: Militant Weight Loss & Recomposition XIPE Press, March 1996. (ISBN 0-9653107-0-1)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Dan Duchaine at qfac.com
- So long Dan - Tribute article by Will Brink
