North Carolina Man Sues Duracap Owners After Requiring Liver Transplant from Use of Mass Destruction Supplement

A North Carolina man is suing Duracap Labs and its owners after he suffered acute liver failure and required a liver transplant after using one of the steroidal dietary supplements produced by the Georgia-based contract manufacturing company. 

Marcus Joyner’s life changed forever after using Blunt Force Nutriton’s Mass Destruction for three or four weeks in October 2013. Joyner required a liver transplant within two months. Joyner holds the contract manufacturer, who produced Mass Destruction on behalf of Blunt Force Nutrition, and its top executives and founders John Wesley Houser IV and Beny Mesika responsible for his life-altering condition.

Joyner is a shift worker for a manufacturing plant in Wilson, North Carolina. Joyner was 28-years old when he encountered significant problems from using Mass Destruction. Joyner faces a considerable future financial burden due to the ongoing and significant medical issues he suffers as as result of the liver transplant.

Joyner’s identity as the liver failure victim became public for the first time after he filed the lawsuit. His identity was not disclosed in the December 2013 U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning letter advising consumers to avoid using “Mass Destruction”. Nor was Joyner’s identity or the details of his case disclosed in the federal grand jury criminal indictment of House and Mesika on two counts of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances (anabolic steroids), two counts of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce and seven counts of money laundering.

The Duracaps case is one of the few criminal cases against a supplement company involving actual “serious bodily injury and/or death”. Joyner would likely be the prosecution’s star witness testifying against any Duracaps co-defendants who choose to go to trial.

Interestingly, federal prosecutors are not basing their case on the two different synthetic steroid ingredients – 17a-methyl-1,4-androstadiene-3,17diol (M1,4ADD) and 18-methylestr-4-en-3 one-17beta-ol (18-NANO) – listed on the Mass Destruction label. Prosecutors contend that it was an undisclosed anabolic steroid which caused the “serious bodily injury”. According to prosecutors, it was the Schedule III anabolic steroid methasterone (also known as Superdrol) that was the culprit. Methasterone has been previously linked to other cases of liver failure. Methasterone was no where to be found on the Mass Destruction label.

In the criminal case, Houser has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances (anabolic steroids). Mesika continues to maintain that he never did anything illegal. According to Mesika’s attorneys, the government lab reports only found “miniscule” amounts of methasterone proving that the trace contamination with methasterone was not intentional.

Source:

Robbins, D. (May 1, 2017). How a Georgia product was tied to rare case of liver failure. Retrieved from http://investigations.blog.ajc.com/2017/05/01/how-a-georgia-product-was-tied-to-rare-case-of-liver-failure/