Hannity & Colmes….
Hello warriors. Yes, I have agreed to make a rare public appearance on Hannity & Colmes. Yesterday, I tentatively agreed to this evening, Friday. This morning we were contacted by the show and told there was a shift in programming due to the London Bombing attempt. So, I decided that Monday would be better.
Of course, I’ve been paying attention to how the Benoit incident has unfolded. I’ve drafted up a post — your typical Warrior masterpiece — and will put up the polished piece after my appearance over at Fox. I’ve some original ideas about this incident — what’s new? — and want to showcase them on TV, first.
I’m not sure yet, still have to do some howling atop my mountain for further enlightenment, but probably just go on Fox with my typical eloquent knack to say what others are thinking but don’t have the courage to let slip past their lips. You know, the usual brilliant, “self-destructive” stuff.
Your Founding Father of Ring Intensity,
Always Believe,
Warrior
June 29th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
I will be watching on Monday. Looking forward to it!!
June 29th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Can’t wait Warrior!!!!!!Take no prisoners!!!!!Jeff
June 29th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I for one am very interested to hear your take on this tragic situation Warrior.
Its been very hard for many of us fans to wrap our minds around it.
Its been said a thousand times before but no one would ever suspect anything like this from Chris Benoit of all people.
June 29th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Warrior i came to this website after leaving a comment on JRs blog which he deleted (his website says any messages containing profanity will be deleted) well writing a comment saying i think Vince Mcmahon should give wrestlers more time of to share with there families must be a profanity. They way they deal with things disguist me. Instead of looking to the future to try and make sure these things dont happen again, they are to busy trying to dodge any sort of blame that may come there way. The constant training, traveling, performing and drug taking is putting people in an early grave. The one man who is in the best postion to help is Vince and he doesnt seem ready to set the standard for other promoters to follow.
June 29th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
I can’t wait to see what you have to say. I will definitely be tuning in.
June 29th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
That’s great; I can’t wait to see the interview.
June 29th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Can’t wait to see you on the show. Did you see Steve Austin’s wife on S&H? Wow, that girl was pissed. Good for her. The fat dude was getting creamed.
Frank
June 29th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
I’m really looking forward to seeing you on Monday, Warrior! I know you will do just fine!
June 30th, 2007 at 2:32 am
Can’t wait to see you on the show. I know you’ll shoot straight. No BS.
June 30th, 2007 at 5:00 am
Warrior, I will be watching. What time Monday can this interview be seen? Maybe you should post it for all your warriors to tune in. All of us want to hear what you have to say!! Much has been said and you know some of it is just television and the other is maybe the truth. I look forward to your ideas and thoughts. One question that you could address. Do you think Wrestling Organizations need to take better care of their wrestlers and What do you think they need to do???? I will wait for your answers…………
RavishingRon39
June 30th, 2007 at 5:47 am
From a wrestling board:
It’s kind of funny that the guy who “self-destructed” is happy, doing whatever he wants and enjoying his retirement…
Amen to that.
June 30th, 2007 at 5:50 am
The Benoit saga has deeply grieved my heart. I hope people will see the supposed Vince McMahon “wellness program” as the joke it is. I have ceased watching wreslting some time ago, but I am familiar with some of the talent. You can’t tell me that someone the size of a Bobby Lashley or even Vince’s son-in-law, HHH, are not on steroids. Even if the WWE does do drug testing, there are ways to beat those tests. I hope Vince wakes up and starts putting people before profits. Also, Vince tried to save his own butt by making one of the most assinine statements of the year in that steroids could not be the cause of Benoit’s behavior as it was an “act of deliberation and not rage.” I think he is now backpeddling on that statement as he has drawn a lot of heat. Obviously, steroids can effect one’s mental state in a variety of ways. Is this the beginning of the “Self-Destruction of Vince McMahon and the WWE? I look forward to hearing Warrior’s comments on Hannity and Colmes.
Gary
June 30th, 2007 at 5:53 am
Do you think if someone pushes the envelope Warrior the Federal Government will get involved in Wrestling like Jose Canseco did for baseball?
This is almost a mirrior image in inself since the two sports are facing the same pressure to clean it’s act based on two different circumstances.
June 30th, 2007 at 8:00 am
warrior-
i agree whole heartedly with your point of view on many of things. this world has for lack of better term has gotten ‘pussified’! i hate how everything you say is under the microscope and is read into so deeply. i miss the days of when you could just speak your mind and the worse you would hear someone say to you is well thats your opinion, now if you say the wrong thing youre a MONSTER! or how can you say that? oh well, im glad to read your posts and its refreshing to see im not the only person left in this world that isnt afraid to speak my mind out loud. i think there is a fine line between being honest and absolutely rude, but most people mistake them for the same. well i gotta jet have a great show on hannity and colmes ill definately tune in.
take care
pk from wisconsin!
June 30th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Oh, the great and wonderous Warrior is going to expound on something else he has absolutely no clue about and try to make himself look intelligent. Why am I not surprised?
You say that you’ve been trying to separate youself from everything Titan, but at first chance you jump in to give you interpretations of what happened with Benoit.
Face it, you know nothing more about what happened than any other fan! It’s just another cheap way for you to get your face on TV and your name into the media. You sure have no other way or reason to be cared about by the general public, so you have to leech off from such a tragedy. It’s sick and disgusting. Yet, I should expect nothing less from the likes of you.
June 30th, 2007 at 11:53 am
And I just can’t wait to see and hear the Warrior on FOX! Thanks for telling us you will be there.
June 30th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Hello Mr. Warrior,
I’m a huge fan. I was just curious, Did you know Benoit and if so, what’s your feelings on him and the situation? Do you think roids played a role in the murders? Everything still seems odd to me. The Superstars on Raw put Benoit over like he was the most loving family man and human being that ever lived and acted like he wasn’t capable of committing a crime like this. I would love to hear your comments! Thanks!
June 30th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Warrior,
Can’t wait for your words - glad you’re going on H&C - Oreilly probably wouldn’t let you finish a sentence without interjecting.
Watch ya Monday.
-DE
P.S. I can’t find you’re email on here - I’d like to say hi correctly, and ask a couple questions (for one: I watched one a vid of you speaking at UCONN on youtube, awesome. I’d love to attend one, will you be speaking in NM anytime soon?).
July 1st, 2007 at 1:57 am
I just read your blog about what happened with the Iron Sheik. Good to hear you managed to handle yourself well.
I am curious if there are people from the WWF that you still are good friends with. Would be good to hear your positive experiences with people as well.
July 1st, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Could you please limit your howling from your mountain to hours before 11 PM? I can’t freakin’ sleep, man.
July 1st, 2007 at 9:34 pm
hello, Warrior, It is a pleasure to see that you are going to be on Fox Hannity and Holmes talking about the Chris Benoit incident.
I do have a humble request though, and that is, if you could clear this absurdity of “Roid Rage” or whatever causing this incident. This is b.s. to the fullest extent, while steroids do increase testosterone levels, they do not cause someone to want to kill their family and themselves without a domestic dispute or personal problems. Case in point, if someone called a black person a “nigger”, majority of them will flip out in a very violent way, it doesn’t matter if they are 5′5 and 150 pounds and have barely worked out a day in their life, it certainly isn’t roid rage that causes someone to flip out. Also, take Ronnie Coleman, 8 time Mr. Olympia in bodybuilding, he is much bigger and muscular than Chris Benoit and probably takes more steroids and growth hormone than him, and is one of the nicest guys I have ever met, plus he is a police officer (everyone knows how stressful that occupation is!), and has never once resorted to physical violence ever! I talk to his fellow deputies and police officers on a regular basis who can verify this.
I say this because you are a very intelligent human being and person, and you are the voice of reasoning for the masses, your words have a lot of power, and can help clear this witch hunt that distracts knowledge from what actually took place.
July 1st, 2007 at 11:55 pm
I truly appreciate Warrior’s honesty, when others don’t. I think this world would be a much better place, if everyone was more honest. Trust and believe, there are ways of expressing your views without being racist or disrespectful, which I as a Black man, don’t think Warrior has ever been. Although some things Warrior has said may be taken as controversial, if people would LISTEN to what is being said, instead of just HEARING him speak, then the words and the meaning behind them would be very well understood. For the record, if you don’t like Warrior or his views, then don’t pay attention to them, and certainly don’t visit his site, just to bash him. (why give his site a “hit” just to dis him. makes no sense to me) With the “Word of Caution”, he lets you know that what he has to say is not for everyone. So use you adult mind and decision making skills to choose to listen, or not. it’s common sense, people! bottom line…point blank…PERIOD!
July 2nd, 2007 at 3:16 am
What time will you be on Fox News with Hannity and Colmes? I’m in the Pacific Time Zone. I can’t wait to hear what you have to say given the fact that all we have heard from the WWE higher ups (McMahon) is a bunch of crap.
By the way, can you gorilla press and knee splash Alan Colmes for me if he interrupts you? I can’t stand that mealy mouthed idiot! Hannity is cool with me so one out of two (or two out of three with you being there Monday) isn’t all that bad!
July 2nd, 2007 at 4:16 am
this is going to be great,i haven’t seen you on T.V. since the 90’s, but i’ve never seen a real interview outside of wrestling i will certainly be watching!!!
July 2nd, 2007 at 9:39 am
Send the power of the Warrior down the throat of everybody in the WWF, until they become sick of it. Well you’re gonna GET sick of it.
July 2nd, 2007 at 9:56 am
This is going to be great, Warrior is going to say it as he thinks it. This whole Beniot situation really brings to light many of the wrongs of today’s society. People still feel they need to pay tribute to this guys career. I think that’s insane, everything and anything has become legitimized because of society attention disorder. Everyone is so busy jumping from one form of entertainment to another, sucking down those quick fixes, and in doing so they have become like zombies. “Sure he killed his family…but hey he could do a great flying head-butt of the top rope. Now that’s what really counts”. This whole situation proves the point that society’s ability to tell wrong from right is now in a haze. Not good people, not good at all. We need thinkers to pull back the reins before we go over the edge, the edge we are frantically speeding towards. I for one am not going over that edge, I won’t be lead there, I know Warrior won’t. Tonight is going to be very interesting.
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Kendra -
what about social duty and obligation to tell the truth to shed light on the dangers of steroid use and cover-ups on steroids in the wrestling industry?! You don’t think that’s important?! Don’t you believe in the Truth for it’s own sake?! and don’t you think that’s sorely missing in today’s world? I certainly do and so does Warrior and so do his “little warriors” and so do other people in the world who know that what they do comes back to them and what they don’t do also comes back to them. You must live in the sewer or something for you to have such little regard for this law of nature called karma.
Julian
July 2nd, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Warrior, I’m looking forward to your appearance on Hannity and Colmes tonight and hearing your thoughts on the Benoit/roids in wrestling situation. My own personal belief is that Chris Benoit crapped all over any achievements in his wrestling career when he murdered his wife and 7 year old son. He does not deserve any tears or tributes from anybody no matter how big a fan they might have been.
July 2nd, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Warrior, wtf man? I just sat here for the last hour watching these morons and that douche bag Debra who was already on before just to see you and you choked. Technical difficulties? Whatsup with that? You’re gonna have a lot of disappointed fans now man. We waited all weekend for you to speak and we got the shaft.
July 2nd, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Warrior, It was sickening having to listen to that (NO TALENT-UNINTELLIGENT-PARASITE Linda McMichael/Austin whatever) and then they supposedly have a problem with your audio/video feed.
We ALL know the first thing you would have done was set her as well as that OJ LOOSER FURHMAN (who states how often he is in the gym………….You could tell by that GREEK ADONIS physique of his, what a joke) straight.
You are our inspiration of truth and righteousness and all those liberal hypocrites NEED to hear what you have to say!
Always Believing!
Craig
July 2nd, 2007 at 8:01 pm
What happened Warriorman? I never trust Fox News, and make no attempt to watch it, but I threw it on and had to suffer through an hour of unbalanced news, where they repeatedly brought up your upcoming interview, then at the last moment bailing on it?!?! God damn did that suck. I’m willing to bet it wasn’t a technical problem, or whatever BS they said it was. I can’t wait to hear the real reason.
July 3rd, 2007 at 2:14 am
i sat and watched a WHOLE hour of H&C with the sole purpose of seeing my favorite wwf wrestler and he wasn’t there…
kidding aside, i really was sad that you weren’t on the show, i am looking forward to hearing your take on this whole issue. i think i can infer some of your feelings in general, but still would love to hear specifics… anyway thanks for not being one of those yahoos that ends up dead, and an inspiration when i was younger.
//warning: fanboy gush on the horizon// one of my favorite memories from my wrestling watching days is when you won the belt from HTM. the electricity of that moment, i was jumping up and down, b/c i disliked the HTM, and at the moment no one knew who he would be wrestling, or if they did, there was some sort of last minute change or something like that; point is, your energy was contagious, even when viewed on a 17 inch tv! Thanks, Warrior!
July 3rd, 2007 at 4:22 am
Dear Warrior: What happened with the technical difficulties? Did they rip you off brah? I tuned in to see your stuff, and in my opinion you could have helped the show big huge.
July 3rd, 2007 at 6:27 am
Hmmm? Were Warrior’s statements too radical(Truthful)for major news media? Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. There was this guy in this prison(Riker’s Island, NY) who had multiple personality disorder; one of his “personalities” tested positive for HIV while his other “personality” tested negative for HIV. Testament to me of the power or thought and/or belief. When his therapist sent a report to the American Medical Association they didn’t really want to look at it. I would think because it, again, was too radical; The Truth is not mechanical. A big business like the American Medical Association IS…big business is a machine and doesn’t neccesarily care about the Truth. Just making a relevant point because Warrior seems to consistently attempt to say the radical truth; I’ve learned or studied that there are two paths one can choose in life: the natural way of limitation(which is most people) or the Unnatural way of Freedom and God. To better understand this I refer you to http://www.templeoffreedom.org. On this site “The Living One” says that a relatively few number of people in the world are true followers of God because most people don’t care for the Unnatural way of Freedom but are apparently content to maintain their individuality and live natural lives of selfishness, limitation and suffering. Then there are those few who go against nature like Warrior, like Jesus did, like Buddha did to go for the “Gold” of Freedom and God.
To those who are of this ilk I salute you; to those who aren’t and even are my enemy…at least I drew the “line in the sand” at least for my own Growth. For the more you attempt to walk towards God the more he takes steps towards you; show Him you’re ready and wanting Him. Send the message to the universe in any way you can. Thus you make society better and move along the Path towards True Freedom and Righteousness. You also make it harder for your “brothers” along the way to wiggle out of their compromisings.
Julian
July 3rd, 2007 at 7:51 am
What happened? Instead they had Stone Cold’s ex-wife Debra. Not that I mind looking at Debra, I just wanted to see the Warrior on FOX. Sean Hannity said there were technical difficulties and they will try to have him another time, I hope so!
July 3rd, 2007 at 9:23 am
What happened? They didn’t have you on last night. “Technical Difficulties”. Stinks, was looking forward to seeing you on FOX. Let us know when you’ll be back on. Keep up the good work.
Jim
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:10 am
Unforseen technical difficulties? That’s BS and they know it. I’ve never been able to watch that show for more than three minutes, but i had forgotten why–until yesterday, of course. I mean, did you see the four rejects they had on talking about the Benoit thing? Message to Stone Cold’s ex-wife: Your husband was and is a drunk, a loser, but that has nothing to do with roid rage and noone gives a poop about the beatdowns you had to endure from his meaty white fist. It’s like, “What are you doing there?”
And they wouldn’t stop trying to turn everything into ‘roid rage’. This is the current fixation the braindead media has. I’m thinking to myself while I watch these four rejects talk about absolutely nothing, ‘Is Warrior, full of colorful Life, going to really follow these rejects with His razor-sharp words?’ “Words mean things.” Words mean things, words mean things, words mean things. Were they doing all they could to make Warrior think to himself, ‘I don’t think what I’m going to say fits with this program.’ Did they think if they carried this on long enough, Warrior would just give in like the four rejects they had on and talk about the violence of ‘roid rage’?
They basically used Warrior’s name to get a little push in the ratings, probably assuming their braindead audience would believe the former LAPD detective, with his short gray hair and suit,is indeed Warrior. They’ve reached a new level of patheticalness that is unprecedented. And right before Warrior’s supposed to come on, they talk about all the so-called symptoms of ‘roid rage’: paranoia, angry outbursts. I bet if warrior were to have actually appeared on the show, as they claimed he was, any loudness on His part afterwards would have been regarded as ‘roid rage.’ Is that why they wanted to have Him on the show in the first place? To further prove their retarded theory of ‘roid rage’? Boneheaded idiots. Morons. Rejects.
Warrior, I eagerly look forward to reading your post.
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:33 am
Was looking forward to Mondays H&C but due to problems Warrior couldn’t be on the program. When will you appear on the program?
July 3rd, 2007 at 7:41 pm
warrior fan aside, you moved me tonight hannity is a favorite of mine but like you said him nor any other media commentator has any business weighing in on this particular matter im 42 studied steroids for a long time and at length i understand what they will and can do and what theye wont do.fact of the matter is had this situation been a common bodybuilder even one that went to a golds gym it wouldn’t even a story.we are living in a nation of conformistsand where we are letting the media dictate policy because every time the media sinks its teeth into a matter change that would take place anyhow over time quickly comes to fruition on the count of massive publicity. hell if you click your news channels all day long not one anchor,host, or commentator has one single solitary though,idea or emotion that belongs to themselves. well i rambled on long enough i appreciate your veiws and your strength, peace out!!
July 3rd, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Warrior…I watched you on H&C tonight and I have to say…I was really, really impressed. I’m 31 years old and was a total Warrior fanatic in my youth. Growing up I learned to find myself and my political beliefs and it’s pretty cool that they are so close to those of my childhood hero. I loved how the begining of the interview you sort of called out that hump Sean Hannity for not being a REAL conservative. Priceless.
Great job, man. Great job.
July 4th, 2007 at 11:23 am
I saw this interview on youtube. It was just like I remembered you when you were a wrestler: that incoherent bellowing sure was quite a throw back. To my childhood, I mean. I have to admire your tenacity for trying to change minds about steroids while already sounding like a gorilla on a roid rage.
You should have done that thing where you used to talk to your fingers, though. Heh, I can picture you doing that while you read this.
July 4th, 2007 at 11:27 am
http://www.mesomorphosis.com/articles/darkes/chris-benoit-steroids-and-violence.htm
Chris Benoit Tragedy - Anabolic Steroids, Aggression & Violence
by Jack Darkes, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Director of Interventions, Alcohol and Substance Use Research Institute, University of South Florida
The following is an overview of the scientific literature on the relationship between anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) and aggression. It is intended as a brief informational review without references to the larger literature from which it draws. A more in-depth review of these issues can be found in a series of articles on this topic I wrote several years ago that are available at Mesomorphosis.com and include voluminous scientific references. An expanded version of this review is likely to appear in a fully-referenced form in the future.
The Chris Benoit Murder/Suicide - What It Can and Cannot Tell Us
In events like the Chris Benoit family tragedy the alleged perpetrator’s characteristics inevitably suggest hypotheses and the search for confirming evidence begins. Anabolic steroids or anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) were blamed before prescription AAS were found, as researchers and commentators alike called forth the popular AAS-‘roid rage connection. Such narrow reasoning backward from the act and actor to the cause shows that jumping to conclusions can seem like reasonable inference. One commentator even noted her preference for blaming steroids over accepting that a person could commit this act, as if assuming that, in the absence of some drug influence, such an act would be a conscious decision, that the only possible causes were drugs or volition. It is likely that research and data will not change these views; still they should not be forsaken.
The facts are: anabolic steroids are illegal. They are powerful drugs, yet research shows the vast majority who use them do so without physical or psychological harm. Some users show negative psychological effects, although such symptoms’ direct relationship to AAS is unclear. This lack of clarity and the gap between science and society makes it important at such times to look to science and question reflexive assumptions; in doing so I do not advocate AAS use, but that we pay attention to science.
Case studies, even tragic ones, may suggest associations among events, like drug use and behavior, but are not proof of causality. Too many idiosyncratic factors confound the observed associations; their salience belies their scientific value. Scientific knowledge is built over time with studies using groups that represent the population or process, not the individual. Science looks for convergence among findings. It uses experiments to examine cause-effect relationships. Science often reveals that what seems to be so is not. These various designs have been used to explore the AAS-aggression relationship and no scientist can say absolutely that AAS did or did not cause this one event.
There are no controlled scientific studies of “’roid rage”, a popular but not scientific term. The AAS-aggression relationship has been studied and the research can be summed up as inconsistent at best and largely unsupportive of the hypothesis. AAS do not inevitably cause aggression. No critical dose that invariably triggers aggression has been identified. When aggression is observed among AAS users, it is within a minority, the effect is not uniform at any dose, and it is not clearly related to blood levels of hormones (Hence, the anticipated toxicology report will be insufficient in a scientific sense to settle this question in the Benoit case).
At a mean level, users self-administering AAS may report higher levels of irritability, hostility or aggressivity than non-users. But users and non-users differ in many ways and AAS self-administration could be influenced by pre-existing aggressive tendencies or a desire for increased aggression, both of which can predict drug-related behavior. Psychology has long known that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, a fact that may be pertinent to this case. For instance, on average AAS users have been reported to be more aggressive than non-users whether taking AAS or not, suggesting that such characteristics may predate/predict AAS use and that AAS could facilitate the expression of existing tendencies. Unfortunately, the true longitudinal data needed to answer this question of pre-existing differences and AAS use are lacking.
Randomly-assigned participants administered supra-physiological doses of AAS in placebo-controlled experiments exhibit negligibly increased aggressive responding; such assignment controls for potential individual differences. Self-reported changes on aggression scales are typically minimal if they do reach statistical significance. A laboratory analog task (the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm; PSAP) in which punitive responses to an alleged competitor’s aggressive responding index aggression has shown some reliable but minor effects (and marijuana users in withdrawal scored similarly to those administered AAS). Behavioral observations by significant others note minimal behavior changes. Some increases in aggression have been seen in participants administered placeboes, suggesting expectation may influence AAS-related behavior. However, such human experiments not only lack adequate active placeboes (normally using only inert oils) to adequately determine AAS direct effects, but cannot ethically administer “real world” AAS doses.
Animal studies allow for larger AAS doses to be used, but their results often fail to generalize to the real world. For example, one study (Ricci et al., 2007, in Behavioral Brain Research) cited in the discussion of this tragedy administered AAS doses (e.g., a total 5mg/kg/day of several AAS) over the complete adolescent period of animals (30 days) and effects on aggression that lasted past cessation. However, the equivalent treatment for a 100 kg human would be 3.5 grams of AAS per week non-stop for years. That regimen does not reflect real world AAS use, either by typical dose or pattern of use, nor does it conform to any known parameters in the current case. On the other hand, consistent with human research, AAS-aggression in animals differs as a function of individual characteristics. Steroid administration increased overall aggression in existing non-human primate groups, but the effect varied by social status; dominant males’ aggression increased while lower-ranking males’ submissiveness increased, suggesting an interaction between AAS and context/characteristics.
It is clear that there is scant scientific evidence that AAS directly cause aggression. What is often presented as evidence lacks external validity. It is likely that any drug, illicit or prescription, administered in high doses for a number of years would have deleterious effects. Ultimately, a minority of self-selected AAS users may show increased aggression, although the mechanism is not clear. Experimental designs with random assignment control for self-selection and find minimal if any evidence for a relationship. There is no consistent relationship between symptoms and blood levels of AAS. The discrepancies between the survey and experimental (including blood levels) findings suggest a need to know more about how AAS interact with individual characteristics and circumstances. That is the state of the science on this issue.
There are an estimated 1 – 3 million AAS users in the US. Ghastly acts such as the Benoit case are rare and, as science would predict, their association with AAS use is virtually non-existent. Many other characteristics are far more predictive of such events. It cannot be said with certainty whether AAS contributed to this tragedy or not. If they were involved, AAS were not a sole contributor but part of a larger set of characteristics and circumstances. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that AAS alone caused this behavior and they are obviously not necessary for such events to occur. The evidence does suggest that most AAS users do not become aggressive. Nonetheless, science will, at best, play a small part in society’s verdict on Benoit and AAS in this tale and it will be another instance where a drug is linked to a heinous act by association and, therefore, the untested popular notions that dominate the headlines today will be reinforced.
If blame were put aside for a moment, there are important lessons unrelated to such simplistic notions that the Benoit tragedy can impart to society. WWE officials say that Benoit tested negative for AAS in April. If AAS is cast as a lone villain, then that was a clean bill of health at that time. But, had society at large and the surveillance program to which Mr. Benoit was subject been at least as concerned with his emotional, familial, and social situation as with his potential AAS use, this event may have been averted. Both science and practicality suggest that, at most, AAS use should be one of multiple foci here, as it should have been in April or before. No drug test in April could have told us enough about this family’s life nor will any toxicology report that might follow.
If AAS are blamed and the richness of these lives ignored, then the opportunity to prevent such rare events goes unrealized. Singling out a drug to blame leads to fiery rhetoric, congressional hearings, prohibition and scare tactics; none of these have succeeded in curbing drug use, especially among those at greatest risk for harm. Most AAS users do not experience negative effects and hence distrust the message and the messengers, perhaps most notably among those who should listen. Research has shown this many times. Blaming AAS diverts focus from potential indicators of risk and predictors of harmful outcomes. This is where science might be most helpful in dispelling simplistic notions and in working toward more effective risk identification, targeting of limited resources and reducing associated harms.
April 21st, 2008 at 5:29 am
Please keep these excellent posts coming.