I spent my day on the road today, finally having my sit-down with the creator of THG. It took almost two months of wrangling and negotiating to get this to happen, almost falling through several times. Since it's a centerpiece of "The Juice," it was stressful.

Now done, I'll be putting fingers to keyboard and putting one of the more chilling stories in print. I can't share much in the way of details, but here's a couple interesting points:

1. THG doesn't require much in the way of chemistry. It doesn't seem any harder than the millions of garage meth labs plaguing the country.

2. THG has been around longer than I expected.

3. THG is "three generations back." Designer steroids have a very small "window of opportunity."

4. "The biggest risk is toxicity. For every ten we try, five are toxic and four don't work." How do you find out they're toxic, I asked? He shook his head, the signal that I'd asked something he wouldn't answer. "Sometimes cats."

5. What brought down Victor Conte? Though he'd never met Conte, he had a quick answer: "Ego. Brag once in this business and it's over."