I honestly feel the media (obviously) blows shit out of proportion. But I'd love hearing opinions on this matter. Things like the HR record and what not are a hot subject for debate. Should Mark McGuire and Barry Bonds receive asterisks for their feats? How I see it is that the general public views this as "Wow they did steroids so obviously they broke records", "Steroids makes everything easy for an athlete". However these are assumptions they make because the only people who should have an opinion on them are people who have tried them. This is equivalent to people bad mouthing alcohol who have never drank. I am not saying everyone should drink or do steroids (or am I?). I will look into some key points here and maybe open some people’s eyes.

George Bush said of steroids in sports, "When they violate their bodies, they are sending a terrible signal to our nation’s youth." This is true in a sense. But let's think about something here: why do the youth hear about athletes on the juice? The media. If the media had never ran a story on Barry Bonds or the Mitchell Report was never publicized the youth would not hear about their favorite stars juicing. What do kids think when they see Barry Bonds going to court for these allegations (I know he was in court for perjury). Kids probably think, "Oh Barry Bonds got caught, when I juice I'll be more secretive about it." I'm not saying every baseball playing kid would think this way but it is hard to argue that they would not.

Why professional athletes turn to the juice in the first place? Let's play role play. You are Alex Rodriguez. You just signed that huge contract with the Yankees, who are expecting huge numbers from you year in year out. What do you do? Should he train even harder than before? Study other teams? No, he decided to juice. Now I really hate using "pressure" as a cop out as to why you did something. It's like saying "Oh I reverted to using Heroin because I was stressed and depressed." The contract A-Rod signed was an incentive in itself to use steroids. A lot of professional athletes contracts are loaded with performance-based incentives; for example if A-Rod hits 40+ HRs in a season he gets another 5 million (this is hypothetical). So it was in A-Rods best interest to get that "edge" if he wanted to make good on those extra incentives.

Enough baseball, let's look at football. Shawne Merriman comes to mind. Now I'm not in Shawne Merrimans head. I do not know what he was ACTUALLY thinking. But let's say he knew he was at his genetic potential. This guy has a family to feed. How do you get PAID in the NFL? Performing well. His first three years were amazing and had him in consideration as one of the best linebackers in the league while making the Pro-Bowl each of those years. In 2006 (his second year and second pro bowl year) Merriman tested positive for steroids. It is not known if he was on before this. But let's play into the mind of Merriman: after 2005 he had 10 sacks and was selected to the pro bowl. How can someone live up to those stats? Let's assume he only started using steroids in 2006, so he takes them to ensure his ability exceeds what it was the year before. Even after missing 4 games he still went on to get 17 sacks and made the pro bowl his second consecutive year. This pressure to take juice is creating by incentives. Let’s assume his contract was also performance based and making the pro bowl or having a certain number of sacks increased his pay day.

The pressure to take steroids is apparent in sports and probably more often than not is taken over and drives people to use. What else does this create? Say I am on the verge of making the team (in any sport). I believe this sport is my bread and butter and my only means of making a living. What are my alternatives? Nothing, I have to make this team. My mindset is open to any ideas and then I decide to juice to ensure I make the team. This is one situation that is most likely apparent in sports today. Or how about even in college and high school? If I do not excel in High School what colleges will recruit me? So players turn to juice to help give them that edge. How about above average players in their respected sports? They want to be great and even legendary. The original legends simply used hard work and talent to achieve their greatness but, we all know how hard it is to actually work HARD. These players also see incentive to use steroids to get on that level. Barry Bonds obviously wanted to break Hank Aaron’s record, and he did juice whether he admits it or not. He went on to break the record. Personally I think that there should be something to distinguish the players that juiced and did not. What if Hank Aaron juiced? His stats probably would have literally been UNBREAKABLE. So I mean there is discrepancy between a player who did and did not juice because we all know juice takes you beyond genetic potential.

The fact is there is always going to be someone who is going to juice and have that “unfair” advantage. And decide juicing is their best option. This is the truth whether you like it or not. We all know the advancements of pre-drug test procedures. There are ways to beat the drug tests and what not. If there are advancements in drug testing then that will cause a need for advancements in pre-test procedure and this is an ongoing cycle. If there is a want, something will almost always come to fill it. That is just business. How have all these pre drug test supplements come to the market; because people have a need to pass drug tests. Of course the easiest way is to just not juice but we have made the conclusion that people will juice no matter the restraints. So this environment leaves an unlevel playing field. It is not allowed to juice but people do it anyways and get away with it. This will cause more people to try and get away with it and as drug testing gets harsher then advancement in pre drug test procedures will greatly improve as well. Athletes could use short estered steroids and they will be out of their system in about a week. So if you know when your drug test is you can plan around it. Now with random drug testing; this does counteract the whole planning idea but if you have a few hours before your drug test there are supplements that may help you pass.

I feel the only way to level the playing field is to have it legalized and allowed. Some of you may be scratching your heads. How could this work? It is actually less complex than one may think. Each sport simply could have those players who will use register as a “user” this is simply for statistics. Statistics is the big topics because performance based contracts are based on them; for example if you throw 30+ TDs as quarterback you get an extra 20%. So this way there are no arguments as to who is and who is not using. Another thing this does is those who do not have that genetic potential can safely use steroids and follow a proper Post Cycle Therapy without being scared of being drug tested. This will create a more open environment and those who are uneducated in this subject can be enlightened that there are safe cycles you can do that will avoid a lot of the stereotypical side effects associated with steroid use. Another thing this can improve is statistics themselves. If you turn on ESPN all you hear about is stats, stats and more stats. With more athletes on juice all of their stats will most likely improve. Fans love stats and even I personally love seeing QB rating, Throw percentage, Touchdowns, Yards per carry and so on. With steroids added into the equations, athletes have the choice to use or not and everybody would then know who was on and who was off.

With steroids legalized and made readily available it will solve most of the dangers associated with the drugs. Needles. Some people reuse needles because they are not readily available. Some states do however have the program where you can exchange them for clean needles. This was incorporated and actually lowered the rate of sharing used needles, more so for heroin users and what not. But this is a danger associated here. Reusing not only the same syringe but needle is a dangerous practice even with sterilization. The needle becomes dull and it is just better to be safe than sorry. A dull needle complicates the injecting process by making it more difficult to break the skin. Also a reused needle if improperly sterilized can raise the probability of infection. Another problem here is where user’s get their gear. The demand for steroids has seen the rise of Underground Labs. I am not in any way putting down underground labs as I use them personally as well. But at the end of the day, we do not know how these compounds are made and how potent they are. There are no checks or balances to ensure that they are safe. You also do not know the environment in which they are made and if the compounds are made in a sterile environment. This is impossible unless you personally make them. There is possibility that the compounds are not sterile and when injected could cause an infection. These are the risks with obtaining the gear.

If steroids were legal I believe you still should have to go through your doctor. Your doctor could prescribe you based on your cycle experience. If you are new they could prescribe a long estered testosterone and prescribe a proper Post Cycle Therapy as well as arimidex on cycle. While also suggesting liver aids while on cycle. Another thing is them being able to warn you of the risks associated with whatever cycle you are going to do. And they could require you to do blood work before, during, and post cycle to see how they are affecting your body. By going through a doctor and professional labs you can then assume that the compounds are safe and were tested. And doctors can show users the exact places you should inject as well as even injecting them for you. This ensures proper protocol is followed and gear heads can be shown proper needle disposal and usage. For example, using one needle to fill your syringe and another to inject the steroid lowers risk of infection. With proper procedures being followed the usage of steroids becomes a lot safer than how it is now.

With people buying steroids and on/post cycle drugs these people become consumers in a new market. This new market creates more jobs and more money to be boosted into our struggling economy. I am sure that if juice was available the want for it would skyrocket because the prices would most likely drop substantially and cause the fall to underground labs because they would not be needed anymore. The black market for steroids would not be eliminated but would be greatly decreased.

People who do sell steroids are thrown in with those who sell cocaine, heroin and meth as “Drug Dealers”. I am sure that they are on different levels of violence but the problem could still be apparent. Buying drugs from the huge guy at the gym you barely know could be walking into a trap. He could steal your money. The problem is even apparent online too. With scammer sources who get your information I have seen threaten to give out your information if you give them bad reviews. The scariest problem for me is getting bad gear. Having your gear tested for potency is expensive and time consuming so, we have to go to a source based on their reviews which is still sketchy to a lot of people I know. So you inject your bunk gear and get infected and may even have to go to the ER for the infection. This wastes your valuable time, money and even health!

With steroids legalized and made readily available the government could then put an age restraint on them. In this I think the age should be 21+. Personally, I do not think ANYBODY should use steroids before the age of 21 unless it is for Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). The drinking age is 21 but I do not think anyone should drink until your body is fully matured which is between 24-31 with 27 being the average age for males reaching their genetic peak. So if you were over 21 you COULD juice with a doctor’s supervision but the doctor would strongly suggest against it due to their age. People know drinking and smoking is bad for you but they do it anyways.

With a lot of young kids in this game they do decide to use gear for certain reasons like getting big quick or for an edge in their sport. Steroids would be made more difficult to get if they were legalized for those under the legal age. I know you are thinking, “wait they are legal but more difficult to get for younger kids?” Most youth I would say either get their gear from Underground Labs as we do or get it from someone who get’s their gear from Underground Labs. UGL’s and sources most likely do not care how old the person is ordering, they just care about the money. This is apparent in youth with drugs. Mr. Drug Dealer on the street corner could care less how old you are he will sell to you if you got the money, whether the user is 12 or 40. This can be counteracted by legalizing steroids.

After legalization MOST UGLs would most likely fail and the amount of them would greatly decrease. Where is my evidence for this? The Prohibition of Alcohol; most do not know but Prohibition quickly produced bootleggers, speakeasies, moonshine, bathtub gin, and rum runners smuggling supplies of alcohol across state lines. Overall there was an estimated 30,000 illegal speakeasies during the Prohibition. This is twice the number that there were just a year before Prohibition came into effect. So Alcohol became MORE of a problem when it was illegal. A lot of people made beer, wine and moonshine all illegally. This is a parallel to our underground market here. A person making their own steroids is equivalent to people making their own alcohol. There are thousands of UGLs selling steroids as there were thousands more speakeasies when Alcohol was illegal. You also had people selling their alcohol. A lot of these “dealers” would mix their alcohol with water or other substances to increase their profit. An illegal market of Alcohol also gave way to notorious thugs like Al Capone who is one of the most well-known gangsters of all time. Here is your proof according to DigitalHistory.uh.edu, “In 1919, a year before Prohibition went into effect, Cleveland had 1,200 legal bars. By 1923, the city had an estimated 3,000 illegal speakeasies, along with 10,000 stills. An estimated 30,000 city residents sold liquor during Prohibition, and another 100,000 made home brew or bathtub gin for themselves and friends.” So again, when it was illegal alcohol became a bigger problem than it was before. UGLs will never be completely out of the equation. With them (almost) out of the picture how can those under 21 get steroids? If they ask their doctor for reason other than HRT then the doctor will simply turn them down because it is illegal. Maybe they ask their older friend to get it for them? The older friend would be using a lot of his own valuable time by going to the doctor, telling him what he wants to do and getting blood work done. The doctor would notice he was not using the juice because of his blood work comparison. So that would be out of the question. Did you know in a survey (I can post if you want or just google it) that they found that “40 percent of teens could get [drugs] within a day; another quarter said they could get it within an hour. In another portion of the survey, teens between the ages of 12 and 17 say it’s easier to get [drugs] than buy cigarettes, beer or prescription drugs. That number is up 37 percent from 2007.” How is this possible? Easy, you have to buy beer or cigarettes at a store. The store owners need to have a license to sell these products and the fact that they have the license is a privilege. This license can be lost if the sellers sell the product to those under 18 or 21. Consumers must show identification (usually) if they look under the legal age. With prescription drugs (steroids would fall into this category if legalized) if you are caught distributing the drugs you were prescribed you will face 2 years in prison and a $1000 fine. These laws keep people in order and lower the incentive to do it. Human life is based on incentives whether you agree or not. I speed on the roads because it is in my best interest to get where I am going the fastest I can. However, if I see a cop riding near me I go the speed limit because of the threat of being pulled over. The incentive changes my actions. If legalized steroids would be harder for our youth to get a hold of.

After everything that has been said I hope I may have opened a lot of your eyes as to why I believe that steroids should be legal not just for HRT but for “cosmetic” reasons. We create a lot of our own problems as a nation but tend to blame others for them. Did you know that Portugal went against the grain and decriminalized every drug and when caught with drugs the abusers got offered free rehab instead of jail time? Fact is they were the laughing stock of the E.U. because they already had a high rate of drug usage. What were the results after doing such a dramatic gesture? “In the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.” This fact speaks for itself. An unconventional method can have results. It is human nature to want something you are not supposed to have. That is reality. So how can a nation control drug problems? According to a TIME magazine article: "It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does." I personally think every drug (yes even heroin and cocaine) should be legalized. There is an obvious demand for it. People who use will keep using and possibly drag others into drug usage as well. Just because heroin is legalized does not mean that everyone will go out and use it. People know it is bad. I am not stepping on ANYBODYs toes here. I know rehab for addicts is possible but just very difficult. Drug addiction runs in my family. Cocaine and Heroin took over my older brothers life from a young age. I lost a close cousin to a heroin overdose. Most of my Aunts and Uncles used cocaine at least once. I am happy I stayed away from everything even having grown up in the early ‘80’s.

I spit facts everybody. I really hope you read this whole thing as it is a problem in society and will continue to be until a good resolution is taken. I am an information junky I wrote a lot of papers like this in college but this is based on my overall knowledge and reasoning. If you do not agree I like to debate topics. Post what you think without being an asshole and we can discuss it. Be easy bros. Let me know what you think.