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NEW YORK, March 31, 2008 (AFP) - Victor Conte, whose BALCO laboratories sparked stunning scandals in athletics and baseball, plans to write a tell-all book about athletes and investigators, the New York Daily News reported Monday.
Conte, whose probation from a BALCO scandal conviction ended Sunday, will pen 'BALCO: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, Marion Jones and What We Can Do To Save Sports' with a planned publication date in September, the report said.
Conte promises to reveal 'the dirt, the drugs, the doses, the names, dates and places and a 'prescription' for a brighter future' in telling his version of events involving athletes, coaches, federal investigators and the media.
'The world certainly knows now that there has been a rampant use of drugs in sport for decades,' Conte said. 'The anti-doping programs in place are still inept and this contributes to the 'use or lose' mentality of many athletes.
'I will continue bring attention to the many loopholes that exist in the testing programs. Hopefully, one day athletes will be able to be clean and play on a level playing field at the same time.
'I see that I have the potential to make change. I can do that.'
Jones, who was stripped of her five medals from the 2000 Sydney Olympics, is serving a six-month prison sentence for lying to federal investigators when she denied taking performance-enhancing drugs.
Bonds, who last year became the all-time US baseball home run king, faces charges for allegedly lying to the grand jury looking into BALCO when he denied taking performance-enhancing drugs.
Conte pleaded guilty in 2005 to charges related to the steroid distribution ring and received four months in prison and four months of house arrest, plus a two-year probation during which attorneys advised silence regarding BALCO.
But with that done, Conte said he will expose sex-for-drugs exchanges between coaches and athletes, drug calendars of sport stars, injections and pills taken and government abuses.
Conte was critical of Jeff Novitzky, the federal agent who uncovered BALCO steroid misdeeds and has pursued the probe since.
'Novitzky is to law enforcement, what I was to sport,' Conte said. 'I helped athletes to use drugs, win medals and break records. I believe Novitzky has helped law enforcement to lie, steal and cheat in order to win cases.
'The real question is whether or not the end has justified the means. It's my opinion that it has not, in either case. What's wrong is wrong and there is no justification for wrongdoing in sport or in law enforcement.'