Criminal law

In Sweden, Big Muscles Constituted Reasonable Suspicion To Investigate Steroid Use

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

bodybuilderIt seems that in Malmö, Sweden police can stop a man for being too muscular.

Police arrested a man after they approached him, suspecting that his physique constituted reasonable suspicion of steroid use. During a field interview their suspicion grew after the man allegedly was reluctant to answer questions.

Later, police obtained a search warrant of his apartment and discovered 20,000 pills and vials of performance enhancing drugs and steroids. Further suspicion was found with the equivalent of $21,000.00 in cash and packaging material. The suspect had text messages allegedly indicating trafficking of the drugs.

Earlier in the year, police in Lund were admonished by the Justice Ombudsman for arresting another muscled man based upon appearance alone. The ombudsman declared that large muscles are not adequate grounds for arrest or to suspect a person of taking drugs to enhance workout routines.

By Darren Smith

Source: The Local

The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.

34 thoughts on “In Sweden, Big Muscles Constituted Reasonable Suspicion To Investigate Steroid Use”

  2. Ohhhhh Good god… as if the USA is sooo FREE./.… didn’t a guy get arrested for clenching his buttocks and FORCED to receive NUMEROUS Enamas and forced to defecate in front of Doctors and cops … then a FORCED colonoscopy….. Just as you have over zealous cops in the USA, we do also in Sweden…. Just NOT as many in Sweden….. and REALLY, somebody on Steroids does have a certain type of appearance….. so, it is NOT unreasonable to use a persons appearance as suspicion of steroid use…..

  3. So if you are skinny that makes you a heroin user? What is the legal body mass?

    1. Ros – BMI is based on bad science to begin with, that is why it is finally falling out of favor with doctors.

  4. It’s not a war on muscles. It’s a war on illegal drug use. You can pretty much tell who is using them just by looking at them.

  9. bailers, “Once again I need to remind myself to be grateful for the presumption of innocence in this country.”

    You must be white. It is true if you’re Black or HIspanic or Native American.

  11. I take it that the next Mr. Olympia won’t be happening in Sweden anytime soon!

  13. If this were the case here in the US, most police officers would have to arrest themselves.

  14. If you look up “Nanny State” on http://www.Wikipedia.org it lists several nations that operate like this.

    American government is supposed to protect us from our neighbors, oligarchs and other bullies – only if one citizen is infringing on the rights of another citizen – not to protect us from ourselves! Not a black & white issue.

    Seat belt and motorcycle-helmut laws is an interesting debate – if an adult is riding alone why should the government care, but if that adult has a child passenger shouldn’t the child be protected? Also whether it’s an “employer, self-employed or personal” use not providing safety equipment, etc.

    The “Nanny State” model alone can also cause harm to citizens by the police and bureaucrats that “interpret” being the nanny.

  17. Big muscles are just as suspicious as the cannabis plant hanging out the window of the car. We know that Stallone is ‘juicing’ because they caught him with the stuff going through customs. It is like owning a red car. Red cars always go faster than any color car of the same make.

  19. Let’s face it. The US is unique, perhaps in all of recorded time. Too many people these days do not understand how we came into being or the fact that this grand experiment had never been tried before. There was no prior right time in a place where landowning had not been developed to any great degree through possession by force (excluding the natives who did not have the concept of owning property well set in their minds). With property to purchase at a near infinite level, money overcame force (except force was purchased as well, not naive).
    Anyway, the laws that were created here also tended to avoid the “strong arm”, hence the individual protections. Could go on, but….. (Oh, and the same holds true with the application of laws as with the getting and retaining of property – money influences outcomes, sometimes with force (leverage, perhaps) of a certain nature.)

  20. Once again I need to remind myself to be grateful for the presumption of innocence in this country.

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