ABSTRACT
This chapter revisits the notorious Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) scandal involving the production and distribution of an undetectable anabolic-androgenic steroid to professional athletes from late 1990s until 2003. Multiple sources are reviewed to re-create the social structure of BALCO and examine whether it formed a close-knit community or instead multiple communities defined around a specific sport or discipline. In the summer of 2003, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) received a tip and used syringe containing traces of an unknown substance from an anonymous source. The source told officials that a nutrition company located in Northern California was providing high-profile professional and Olympic athletes with the substance. The events leading to the scandal's culmination demonstrate the unique process a legitimate company went through in becoming an illicit drug trafficking enterprise. Because the scandal involved a number of high-profile professional and Olympic athletes which documented intricate details about the people involved and their relation to one another.
