- menshealth.com/health/supplement-problems
- news.menshealth.com/spiked-supplements-strike-home/2011/11/11/
List date(s) this work was published or aired.
July/Aug 2011
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
This story examined the growing problem of supplements spiked with prescription drugs, many of them banned or totally untested. To set this story apart, I wanted to examine the problem from all aspects– the manufacturers, the sellers, the consumers and the regulators– and how all four come together to contribute to the problem. I have not been able to find another story other than mine that quotes someone who was actually caught selling spiked supplements, which meant this story gave readers unique and often surprising information (for example, how an FDA recall can actually be great for business.) I was able to persuade this source not only to talk to me, but to use his full name in the article. Please note: You may recall that the New York Times published a similar story on this issue; it came two months after the publication of the Men’s Health story.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
I spent a lot of time looking for data that amazingly does not exist: the proportion of supplements or their raw ingredients that come from overseas, the number of arrests and convictions for selling spiked supplements. (In addition to not finding government numbers about foreign supplement manufacturers, I also queried all 7 professional associations for supplement and natural products producers looking for this information.) For the narrative portion of the story that focused on the Asian connection, I drew on an affidavit obtained from the FDA web site. I could not get one particular manufacturer to be interviewed, so I used a sworn deposition from a company employee. (Where he disclosed, among other things, that their four-man operation grossed $4 million a year.) I also drew on the scientific literature for information on the effectiveness of supplements and other information.
Explain types of human sources used.
Consumers, scientists, physicians, regulators, lawyers and (as previously mentioned) a perpetrator. I even consulted a chemist to review the chemical structures in my story, which I used to show how slight variations in a compound can drastically change the way the body reacts.
Results:
In September, federal authorities raided the office of one of the companies that would not talk to me. (They were selling steroids labeled as supplements.) The owner was taken into custody. For more information, see the web links section of this entry.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No corrections or clarifications.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
From the beginning, I wanted to set this story apart by talking to a perpetrator, and I began the reporting process with that as my main intention. I had seems newspaper stories about this problem, but none that I could find ever answered the questions of who was doing this, and how. Going about it that way led me to some of my best sources, even when the original lead was a dead end. I also wanted this story to show how the different players came together to either commit the crime, allow it to passively happen, or try to fight it with methods that are ineffective.