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.
