Epidemic of steroid abuse in the UK?

[PHABIO]

Tweethttps://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Stor...084832,00.html

From gym to club to school: the shock spread of steroid abuse

Paul Kelso, Duncan Mackay and Matthew Taylor
Friday November 14, 2003
The Guardian

Four years ago Rob Dawson, a County Durham GP, came across a startling set of figures from a local needle exchange programme: the largest single group of drug users visiting the exchange - 60% - were not heroin addicts, but intramuscular steroid injectors. Dr Dawson's discovery prompted him to establish a specialist clinic that today treats around 600 anabolic steroid users a year and has established him as the leading medical expert on the scale of steroid use in the UK.
Dawson has witnessed an explosion in the use of steroids and, more worryingly, a change in the profile of users. Where once steroids were the preserve of elite athletes and the body building clientele of "hardcore" muscle gyms, the GP is seeing increasing numbers of young men, even adolescents, turning to steroids for no other reason than Friday night vanity.

"The youngest person I have treated is 15. We have realised that this isn't a small, isolated problem. It's an international problem for the youth of today," he said.

"There will be people out tonight in Newcastle who are using steroids, not because they want to run faster or jump further, but just because they want to look good."

Despite the boom in steroid use and the potential dangers involved, less is known about the scale of the problem than with any other controlled drugs. While steroids are banned under the same Misuse of Drugs act that controls the supply of cannabis and cocaine, users do not consider themselves standard drug takers because of the association with fitness and nutrition.

The drugs are not associated with widespread criminality either, so little effort is expended on cutting off the supply lines from Asia, Central America and Europe, where the drugs are largely manufactured. As a result, says Dr Dawson, steroid use is becoming rooted in British culture.

Experts say a mythology has grown up around anabolic steroids, a myth fed by the importance that sports' governing bodies attach to testing for them. In evidence they cite the increased sales of steroids and supplements that usually follow the exposure of high-profile athletes who test positive for drugs, such as the British sprinter Dwain Chambers.

The phenomenon was most obvious when elite athletes began testing positive for nandrolone, a substance that boosts endurance.

"The stuff literally flies off the shelves [after a positive test]," said a warehouseman at one leading nutritional product manufacturer. "The public seems to believe that if it's good enough for the stars, then it's good enough for them."

"These positive tests are like product placement," said Dr Dawson. "Adidas pay David Beckham millions to wear their boots, but the drug manufacturers get their products placed for free every time there is a major competition. It would be naive to think each positive drugs test isn't an endorsement of sorts. It proves the product works.

"For the vast majority, however, they don't work. They put your health at risk yet there has become something sexy about steroids."

Certainly there is nothing "sexy" about testicular atrophy, baldness and breast growth - some of the side-effects commonly associated with steroid use. Neither are blood disorders or abscesses caused by dirty needles and drugs manufactured in unhygienic environments, yet the rise in steroid use is undeniable.

No nationwide study of drug use has been undertaken but the Guardian has found a growing body of evidence that points to a burgeoning market for illegal anabolic steroids in the UK, and a disturbing shift in the demographic spread of the people taking them.

A study by the University of Glamorgan has identified steroid use by children as young as 14 in south Wales, and found that use of the drugs spanned a wide social spectrum including teachers, police officers and office workers.

In Merseyside and Cheshire, meanwhile, steroid users have overtaken opiate users among new clients at local needle exchanges, and a British Medical Association survey of GPs last year found that one in three GPs had encountered patients who used anabolic steroids.

The Home Office estimates that as many as 42,000 people used the drugs in 2001-2. Police and customs seized more than 70kgs of anabolic steroids during the same period.

Children


The growth in steroid use in the UK is mirrored in the US and Canada, where use among high school athletes is at an all-time high as students strive to become bigger, faster and stronger. More than 500,000 American children are estimated to have used the drugs, and use by teenage girls has doubled during the 1990s.

The Glamorgan study found that 58% of people questioned at three gyms in the mid-Glamorgan area admitted using steroids, some of them as young as 15.

Julian Baker, one of the researchers, said: "We did not go looking for steroid use. We just took a cross-section of the gyms in the area and this is what we found. One of the most worrying aspects is the increasing number of teenagers who are getting involved.

"Once the pits and the mines closed down men had to redefine themselves and one way of doing this was to get into body building - and often that can lead to steroids."

He said some people, such as club door men, took the drugs to increase their levels of aggression.

The Glamorgan team also studied the effects of long-term steroid use among 40 body builders who had been using them for more than 20 years. Three of the sample group, all in their early 40s, died during the study period, all of them suddenly.Dr Fergal Grace, a member of the team, said: "Although none were officially linked to steroids we believe they were likely to have played a part."

Many deaths in the body building community which were caused by steroids were not officially recognised, he added.

Most disturbingly, the Guardian has discovered that the use of steroids is spreading from the gym to the playground. At Porth county school in Rhondda Cynon Taf, south Wales, staff have caught young teenagers using steroids and, on one occasion, found steroids on the school premises.

Steve Bowden, the headteacher, said: "It is becoming more apparent now. It seems to come from a macho gym culture. The boys who are taking the drugs are not top sportsmen, they are just looking for respect in their communities and for whatever reason are turning to the gym and sometimes steroids."

Robert, a body builder from mid- Glamorgan who has been using steroids for a decade, agreed that the users were getting younger. "There are a lot of younger lads getting involved with steroids at the gyms round here now," he said.

"They come in and train for a few weeks then start using and it is no good for them because they haven't got the core strength to start with."

According to Pat Lenahan, head of the drug and sport advisory service at John Moores University, Liverpool, whose book Anabolic Steroids is the most recent authoritative study of British steroid use, the last 15 years have seen the drugs spread across a wide range of new users at either end of the age scale.

"Steroid use spans the age range," he said. "At the Cheshire needle exchange we found that the youngest and the oldest clients were steroid users. In the last five years, since the male menopause has gained currency, we have seen more men in their 40s and 50s taking the drugs. Clinical testosterone treatment is very expensive, but people can get a similar effect far cheaper by buying anabolic steroids."

The users may have changed but gyms remain central to the use and supply of steroids. Visit any hardcore gym and you will find a room echoing to the clank of heavy weights and the grunts of effort from the men who lift them.

The culture of such gyms, where bicep curls with 25kg weights are routine and being able to lift your own bodyweight above your head unremarkable, is macho, intimidating, and highly competitive. Fed by vanity and competition, the desire for ever greater muscle mass and definition can be met by steroids.

Many gyms operate a strict no-drugs policy, but there are others where steroids are available over the counter at prices ranging from £100 to £350 for an eight-week course. One source with knowledge of such gyms said: "You walk in and you wonder whether you will be walking out again. It can get pretty hairy, particularly with big guys around."

The Guardian contacted three hardcore gym owners, all of whom operate no-drug policies and do not sell steroids, but all acknowledged that some of their members use the drugs.

Kerry Kayes, a former British champion body builder who now runs a gym in Manchester and a nutrition business, said the scale of steroid use was exaggerated, but conceded it was an issue for his sport.

He said he was often asked for steroids by teenagers eager to build muscle fast. "I tell them, 'Son, you've got a perfectly good pair of testicles there doing the job for you. You're 19 years old, your body is the perfect environment for building muscle as it is. Why do you need anything else?'"

[MYRICK]

Tweetdamn that was long. good post brotha

[smalls]

Tweet"There will be people out tonight in Newcastle who are using steroids, not because they want to run faster or jump further, but just because they want to look good."

Jumping is now a more justified reason for steroid use. I just realized im in this for the wrong reasons.
I agree that 15 year olds and the other huge majority of steroid users who have no idea what they are doing is a problem.

Just ONCE I want to read an article written by someone who knows the first thing about steroids.

[PHABIO]

Tweet"Police and customs seized more than 70kgs of anabolic steroids during the same period. "

Is that a weight or a total potency of all seized gear?

Since when they weigh steroids? I guess since they became as bad as cocaine!

Usually they put a street value of seized steroids, something like $50 million.

[Grappler]

TweetGood read

[murph0110]

Tweetgood read... thanks...

murph