The NYPD will begin random steroid tests of cops in the wake of a sensational scandal that tainted as many as 27 officers and led to a Brooklyn druggist blowing his brains out, The Post has learned. “Steroid use for nonmedical reasons is illegal, and, to reinforce that, the department will begin testing for it,” a police spokesman said.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who decided to institute the tests, will have to come up with $1 million annually to carry out the program, which is a first for the department. Any one of the 35,800 Finest who fails a test faces suspension and possible dismissal.
Under previous procedures, cops were tested for a variety of drugs – including heroin, cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy, barbiturates and amphetamines – when they joined the department and when they ended their probation. After that, they faced random tests for those drugs. Tests for steroids, which aficionados use to bulk up, were conducted only if there was a complaint or suspicion that the officer was abusing “the juice.”
Beginning in the summer, when the money becomes available, steroid tests will become a regular part of the NYPD’s regimen.
Kelly decided to implement the testing after the NYPD was hit by a scandal last October, when cops raided Lowen’s Pharmacy in Bay Ridge and found $7 million worth of steroids and human-growth hormone.
Client lists seized from the pharmacy – whose name came up in the probe of steroid use by major-league baseball players – identified 27 NYPD cops as customers.
Seven of them failed steroid tests. They were forced to turn in their guns and badges, and were given desk jobs while they await departmental charges.
On Jan. 29, John Rossi, 56, an owner of the pharmacy, blew his brains out in a back office after leaving a note for his wife that read, “Please forgive me.” He had just seen his newborn grandson in the hospital.
The NYPD will conduct the new tests by examining a urine sample or a hair. Tests on the latter can reveal drug use during the previous 90 days.
Additional reporting by Andy Geller