Why are steroids illegal?

[Hosakawa Tito]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I have no idea, but perhaps one should observe and heed the warning of Lyle Alzado.

[Strike For The South]

Lyle Alzado had a brian tumor. Could've happened to anyone. I love how the one man every champions as being the ultimate victim of steroids really was just a victim of bad luck. If "they all were doing it" Why have we not seen more of these debilitating tumors in former NFL players?

[KarlXII]

[Name here] died of AIDs. Could've happened to anyone. I love how the one man every champions as being the ultimate victim of AIDs really was just a victim of bad luck. If "they were all suffering from it" Why have we not seen more of these deaths in former gay communities?

[CountArach]

As TuffStuff said, they aren't illegal. I took some when I was younger as part of my asthma medication (I used to have really bad asthma... was hospitalised a couple of times). For general use I am unsure, but I know you can get very similar things over-the-counter down here.

[rory_20_uk]

There are several types of steriod: mineralocorticoids, glucocorticoids, androgenic and oestrogenic steroids to name but a few. The pill is two sorts and are as available as smarties. cortisol is also widely available. I thought the discussion was on the androgenic / anabolic ones.

[Productivity]

I personally don't think having athletes die at the top of mountains with a cocktail of drugs coursing through their veins is good for sport, the athlete or the spectators.

If you don't restrict doping, that's what you'll get because it will come down to a race to see who can take the most drugs and survive in an effort to adheive the best time ever.

[Hosakawa Tito]

Lyle Alzado had a brian tumor. Could've happened to anyone. I love how the one man every champions as being the ultimate victim of steroids really was just a victim of bad luck. If "they all were doing it" Why have we not seen more of these debilitating tumors in former NFL players?

Alzado realized himself what the ramifications of "self-medicating" with these type substances had done to him, albeit to late. Not just physical changes, but psychological ones also. Could the abuse of these drugs taken purely for performance enhancement have triggered his cancer? Perhaps...perhaps not, drugs do affect individuals differently so unless there's a health related reason for taking them why take the chance. Especially when one with no real medical knowledge decides to self-medicate, and human nature being what it is figures that dose X works fine so dose 4X would be even better.

Alzado is the best known poster-child for the dangers of using these substances, but he certainly isn't the only one. Check out the premature deaths of Professional wrestlers that may also be attributed to abusing these substances. Where there's smoke there's fire....

[lars573]

Alzado is the best known poster-child for the dangers of using these substances, but he certainly isn't the only one. Check out the premature deaths of Professional wrestlers that may also be attributed to abusing these substances. Where there's smoke there's fire....

I tend to agree. But, unlike other pro athletes, pro-wrestlers don't usually have the option of talking time off to heal bad sprains and pulled muscles. About the only injuries that they can let bench them are borken bones, and torn muscles. As their buisness is no play, no pay. The example I know well enough to use is one Brett Heart gave in the 1997 documentary about him called "Wrestling with shadows." He broke his sternum doing a match. And took off 8 weeks. But his sick pay he was getting from his contract (he said $200-$300 every few weeks) wasn't enough to live on. And in his own words "I was back out wrestling way before I should have been." So these guys tend to be walking pharmasies of preformance enhancers, pain killers, and other "recreational pharmasuticals."