Santo Domingo.– 'Boli' has become a hard to find drug in the Dominican Republic after Yankees player Alex Rodriguez acknowledged taking it in order to enhance his performance from 2001-03 while with Texas.

According to Rodriguez, a cousin persuaded him to use try it and got it without a prescription and without consulting doctors or trainers. In the Dominican Republic, "boli" commonly refers to the brand-name anabolic steroid Primobolic, also marketed as Primobolan. Rodriguez said he took the banned substance by injection.

"Primobolan is not imported by Dominican pharmaceutical agencies, but you can get it without problem in the underworld of steroids," said Milton Pinedo, head of the anti-doping program for the Dominican Olympic Committee.

Local bodybuilder Manuel Feliz said the steroid has been getting harder to find since A-Rod's remarks. "Primobolan is used very frequently in the country's gyms, but since it was linked with the name Alex Rodriguez, it has disappeared from the market," Feliz said.