I’ve read with interest that Malaysia’s first gold medal in the 17th Asian Games won by a Tai Cheau Xuen is now under jeopardy as she has tested positive for the stimulant sibutramine.
Source: Tai tests positive for sibutramine and may be stripped of her gold medal from The Star Online
Now, I’ve experimented with sibutramine in the past and blogged about the effects of using sibutramine recreationally. It’s not very fun. In the second episode, I actually landed myself in ICU and I’m still not sure if my extensive renal failure is due to intravenous injection of methamphetamine or insufflating sibutramine since I was doing both before I got hospitalized.
It’s worthy to note that sibutramine has an high body load (drug culture speak for “it has really bad cardiovascular effects”) and I felt like I’ve run a marathon after doing it each time. I’ve had extensive experience with stimulants and have been prescribed legal amphetamines in the form of Dexamphetamine (pure dextroamphetamine in 5 mg pills) when I was studying in Australia.
I’ve also been addicted to injecting and smoking methamphetamine for several years but I’m totally clean now. This is just a little bit of history so new readers will know that I know what I’m talking about when it comes to CNS stimulants, legal or otherwise. 😉
Sidenote: If you didn’t know the story about veritas, it was a pseudonym I used for writing drug posts – it was more than a little strange how veritas was in Melbourne when I was, in KL when I came back to work, and in Sibu when I came back for the holidays. It was a funny charade but a very open secret – everyone knew I was veritas, the disclaimer was just for fun. I finally (publicly) admitted to the truth in 2004.
This is a very curious case as I’ve met pro athletes before and they’re *VERY* careful about their food and drink. I once met a famous national athlete (who shall remain unnamed) and he was very concerned about this during the lunch we were at. I didn’t know who he was at the time and found it surprising that he won’t touch his drink after he has left the table e.g. he’ll get a new drink everytime his drink has left his direct control.
I found out later that this was to prevent people from slipping him anything since the stakes are so high at his level of competition that saboteurs could be anywhere.
Thus, I’m sure the same applies to Miss Tai, I would expect her to exercise the same amount of care and caution (which looked remarkably like paranoia to me at that time) with regards to her food and drink.
Which leaves what?
Sibutramine has been withdrawn from many markets e.g. Australia and the US since it’s been found out that it is associated with a lot of cardiovascular damage, just like many other similar drugs. Remember phentermine combined with fenfluramine a.k.a. Phen-Fen?
I’m just saying that it’s *very hard* to get a hold of sibutramine nowadays (my experiments with it was before it was banned in most countries after it was discovered to have negative cardiovascular effects) and you really have to make an effort to seek it out.
I’m sure a pro-athlete wouldn’t be stupid enough to take “herbal supplements” with the bad reputation that they have (many of them contains the exact active ingredients of popular drugs for the ailments they claim to improve) so I’m just saying that this entire thing is very…er, puzzling. 
I shall leave it at that.
I kinda miss Veritas =p
Was the main thing that drew me to your blog, loved reading your drug experiences in excruciating detail. As far as bloggers were concerned, you were the most interesting. Wish you weren’t forced to delete some blog posts though. I was about to go on a drug reading spree when stopped by these.
http://sixthseal.com/000578.html
http://sixthseal.com/000582.html
but I’m glad I know that I have read them before it was taken down =D
It’s funny how I enjoy reading your experiences like a good book. So scarily awesome, that it’s worth a second read.
Thanks for reading Pete! 🙂
Those were some awesome years eh? I actually made a very stupid mistake regarding the content – I had this *bright* (stupid) idea to MOVE ALL the drug content to castitas.com to better separate the two domains, so veritas will have a blog of “his” own, all about drugs and pharmaceuticals.
That was what I planned after I got arrested and went to jail in 2005 anyway, move castitas.com to a permissive server, keep this blog on ANOTHER server, and separate the two domains once and for all – unfortunately, I went to rehab and then all my servers went down.
Luckily, a friend from Australia had HTML backups of my blog (mostly) so I can recover it, but it didn’t cover castitas.com, fireelement.com (the new blog) or the comments on sixthseal.com so that’s why they’re missing (including some images).
I wouldn’t even have my old posts if it weren’t for David from Perth archiving them.
I’m not sure which posts you’re referring to since my posts haven’t been numbered like 000578.html since I switched from Movable Type to WordPress.
Where did you get all those URLs?
I know I’m missing a lot of posts, I’m trying to recover them as best as I can through archive.org and my old photos so that’s why I’m asking.
Cheers mate and thanks again for sharing my experiences!
ah, always love reading your blog post, so refreshing and honest
cheers from your silent reader 😉 (for 5 years i must say! )
Thanks Wanie! 🙂
Appreciate your kind comments – cheers for reading, it’s always a pleasure to hear from long time readers!
Am a newbie here. Didn’t know your history
Anyway, now that you highlighted about how careful athletes with their food and drinks, it seems curious that she would risk it all knowing that even if she won. she will still have to go through drug test.
It’s just stupid things I did in the past! 🙂
Yeah, that’s what I thought too! Professional athletes are very careful, the guy had his girlfriend at the table and he still changed his drink everytime he went to the toilet or went to talk to another table since he knows that his gf can’t keep her eyes on the drink 100% of the time.
I thought it strange at the time but it’s just the way pro athletes behave – they gotta be very cautious, so this case is very open and shut to me.
Dunno all these things – whatever it is, glad it’s all in the past now in your case. Good for you! Cheers!
Thanks buddy! 🙂
Yeah, it’s all in the past, I thought I’ll just share my thoughts on this case since I know about stimulants and sibutramine is very hard to “accidentally” get into yourself since it’s banned in most countries (including ours).
Goodness bro! You always give me goose bumps when I read about your torrid stories with substances. I like and respect your transparency & bravery always. I want to shake your hands someday.
Oh well, it’s just the past! 🙂
I thought this case was quite interesting since sibutramine is banned in Malaysia (and most other countries). I know quite a bit about drug laws and pharmaceutical regulations so I was very curious when I heard that someone “accidentally” got sibutramine in their urine test.
Always good to read about the good old days but even better to know that those days are behind you.
Thanks buddy! 🙂
Yeah, I was just commenting on this case – it’s really open and shut to me, sibutramine is banned in Malaysia (did it when it wasn’t banned – knew it was going to be banned soon due to the cardiovascular effects so I quickly bought before it was banned).
I actually did the same with ketamine (got a vial from a vet in Sibu) in the mid 90’s. I was surprised that he’ll actually sell it to a teenager (just got back from NZ for holidays and know ketamine is highly regulated, but not in my small hometown).
Back to the case, I’ll just say that it’s VERY hard to “accidentally” get sibutramine into your system since it’s banned in most countries and it’s not easily available.
I’ve been following ur blog since 2002, always like what you wrote about ur life back then, its like everyday is an adventure life for u.
The post that I enjoyed the most is a series of stories u wrote, can’t remember which post is it, but I really enjoy reading it. will be following ur blog on years to come also.
cheers 🙂