Daniel "Dan" Duchaine (1952 - January 12, 2000) was a former American bodybuilder, author, and two time convicted felon. 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. [4]Steroid Nation author and ESPN writer Shaun Assael calls Duchaine "a founding father of the steroid movement."[1]
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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 initially claimed that he wouldn't sell steroids because he didn't know where to get them. But after a messy divorce from his first wife left him broke, he met a supplier and began selling. He started by undercutting the local dealers, then moved into wholesale. Eventually, he became part of a major trafficking ring from Mexico, and co-founded Laboratories Milano in Tijuana, which was the largest black market steroid manufacturing plant in Mexico at the time.
In mid-1987, Duchaine was caught and indicted on conspiracy and mislabeling charges. He pled guilty to the two counts 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. In 1991, while 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 36 months in prison. While in prison, he says he learned to make money through legitimate avenues.[3]
In 1988, Duchaine introduced Clenbuterol to bodybuilders. Duchaine is also credited with introducing dinitrophenol (DNP) into bodybuilding through an interview on one of ten cassettes included with bodybuilding magazine Muscle Media 2000 (better known as MM2K).
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 [5]
Duchaine was found dead on January 13, 2000 by his close friend Shelley Hominuk in his apartment in Carlsbad, California. Examiners established Duchaine died the day before, aged 47, due to kidney failure caused by hereditary polycystic kidney disease.