Mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Justin Levens and his wife Sarah McLean-Levens were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide on Wednesday, December 17, 2009. An autopsy was conducted on Thursday but investigators are still awaiting the results of toxicology tests to determine if the deceased had used any drugs prior to their deaths. Yet, bloggers and writers are jumping on the steroid bandwagon blaming anabolic steroids as a potential culprit for the tragedy (“Justin Levens Suspected of Killing Wife and Himself,” December 18).
Wrestling is a sport that has brutal action, and often an even more brutal aftermath for fighters. Mixed martial arts, which is becoming a powerful alternative to wrestling, appears to be no different. Drugs, steroids and a bad mental state outside the ring may be just as prominent in mixed martial arts. That may have been the case for former competitor Justin Levens, who is suspected to have killed himself after killing his wife.
A few have approached the Levens murder-suicide tragedy without such steroid hysterics. Fightlinker thinks people need to stop focusing so much on steroids while ignoring painkillers which are a “bigger elephant in the room” (“Stop trying to disown Justin Levens,” December 19).
Levens was a mixed martial artist who was hooked on painkillers. Pain med addiction is a serious problem in our sport, and it’s only getting worse. What happened with Levens was obviously a rare and horrible outcome, and it’s not like we’re expecting James Irvin and Joe Riggs to go off like ticking time bombs any second now. But we might want to maybe consider looking into the painkiller issue. I don’t know what can be done, but at this point they’re a bigger elephant in the room than steroids are.
Sherdog makes note of several events that point to potential painkiller use/abuse by Justin Leven aka “The Executioner” (“Levens’ Autopsies Suggest Murder-Suicide,” December 18).
Authorities also took into custody what appeared to be prescribed painkillers and anti-depressant medication, though they were not found in the standard-marked pharmaceutical containers denoting whom they belonged to.
A two-time UFC competitor, Levens had tested positive for the painkiller oxymorphone in pre-fight testing for a bout against Ray Lazama at Affliction “Banned” on July 19 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., according to the California State Athletic Commission. The bout had been cancelled that night due to time constraints.
Toxicology reports of both bodies will take six to eight weeks, said Amormino.
The fire department had been called to the residence twice in the last month, according to Amormino, once for a potential drug overdose and once for smoke coming out of the home.
Amormino was unable to confirm who had overdosed or what the drug was and if anyone had sought out medical care at the time.
Inexplicably, most people overlook painkillers, not that any drug should be isolated as a single cause of this tragedy, and automatically jump to the conclusion that anabolic steroids led Levens to the murder-suicide. Sadly, the average reader rushes to blame steroids as seen in numerous comments made around the blogosphere.
“Steroids did it!!!! Steroids are evil, they turn people into Hitler clones.”
“Sounds exactly like another steroid tragedy.”
“Steroids. Next.”
“betcha it is from steroids!!! WTF!!”
“Gee, ya think maybe steroids had something to do with this?”
“My first thought from just reading the head-line was Shit. Another athlete gone crazy on HGH or steroids.”
“What particular steroid in what particular amount or consistency would you put it down too?”
Blaming steroids for violent crimes like the Chris Benoit murder-suicide or the David Jacobs murder-suicide provides a convenient scapegoat for tragic events but fails to provide constructive solutions that would help avert such tragedies in the future. Addiction expert Jack Darkes notes that blaming steroids only serves to “diverts focus from potential indicators of risk and predictors of harmful outcomes.”
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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