Ergogenic use of anabolic steroids
Performance-enhancing substances have been used for thousands of years in traditional medicine by societies around the world, with the aim of promoting vitality and strength.
[7] In the United States, sports physicians, including Ziegler, and medical texts were still widely proclaiming that anabolic steroids were ineffective in helping athletes gain muscle.
"[6] Despite these warnings, use of anabolic steroids began in competition bodybuilding, in track and field events, such as the shot put, and in other sports where performance depended on muscle strength or speed of recovery during training.
This open label study, conducted by J.P. O'Shea and colleagues at Oregon State University, confirmed the muscle building effects of anabolic steroids on athletes that followed a high protein diet.
[6][10] At the beginning of the 1970s, sporting organizations, including the IOC and NCAA, declared the use of anabolic steroids unethical, but with no effective means of testing athletes, the issue remained academic.
[6] It is difficult to determine what percent of the population have used anabolic steroids due to the fact that most studies are based on self-reporting.
Studies in the United States have shown anabolic steroid users tend to be mostly middle-class heterosexual men with a median age of about 25 who are noncompetitive bodybuilders and non-athletes.
[15] According to a 1998 study,[16] 2.7% of middle school (age 9-13) students in the United States reported using steroids, with 2.8% being female and 2.6% being male.
[20] Anabolic steroids have been used by athletes in many professional sports, including track and field, weightlifting, bodybuilding, shot put, cycling, baseball, wrestling, mixed martial arts, boxing, and football.
[34] Italy passed a law in 2000 where penalties range up to three years in prison if an athlete has tested positive for banned substances.
[35] In 2006, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law ratification of the International Convention Against Doping in Sport, which would encourage cooperation with WADA.
Many other countries have similar legislation prohibiting anabolic steroids in sports, including Denmark,[36] France,[37] the Netherlands,[38] and Sweden.
[41] Anabolic steroids are also illegal without prescription in Australia,[42] Argentina, Brazil, and Portugal,[43] and are listed as Schedule 4 Controlled Drugs in the United Kingdom.
The United States first considered classifying anabolic steroids as a controlled substance in the late 1980s after a controversy over Ben Johnson's victory at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
[citation needed] These organizations argued that use of these drugs does not lead to the physical or psychological dependence required for such scheduling under the Controlled Substance Act.
[44] The same act also introduced more stringent controls with higher criminal penalties for offenses involving the illegal distribution of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.
By the early 1990s, after non-medical use of anabolic steroids was criminalized in the U.S., several pharmaceutical companies stopped manufacturing or marketing the products.
The DEA has stated that the e-mails intercepted were compiled into a massive database of names which could lead to months or years of future arrests of steroid users.
[53] Often times these veterinary grade anabolic steroids are used by athletes in a measure to bypass restrictions in their local countries.
[55] In addition, a significant number of counterfeit products are sold as anabolic steroids, particularly via mail order from websites posing as overseas pharmacies.
