A former Iowa high school football player recalls the abuse of steroids by fellow teammates a decade ago. According to him, coaches would give the pep talk before a game and leave the locker room knowing players would "shoot up" before kick-off.
That’s a disgraceful situation. A high school coach serves as a mentor and authority figure to impressionable young athletes aiming to please. And any coach who turns a blind eye to the obvious or even encourages the use of steroids to "beef up" his team imperils the well-being of his players.
Professional and Olympic athletes are placed at the pinnacle of athletic accomplishment. When adolescents who are aspiring to reach these same heights realize their idols have cheated to reach the top of their game, they are tempted to try the same shortcuts.
During the 1980s, widespread abuse of steroids by professional and Olympic athletes helped create a situation where steroids seemed to be needed to reach the next level of competition.
In 1990, Congress passed the Anabolic Steroid Control Act that made the possession and selling of certain anabolic steroids illegal.
However, despite the side effects and illegality of anabolic steroids, the short-term benefits provide a tremendous temptation to all athletes. Even coaches, who we expect to promote fair play, will tell athletes to "do what they have to" to be bigger, faster, and stronger. This desire to excel and improve performance has trickled down to even our youngest players.
At a congressional hearing I held this summer in Washington, witness testimony raised a red flag for parents and policymakers. During this hearing, we found that Anabolic steroids and their precursors are easily available and inherently dangerous to adolescents and amateur athletes.
Illegal steroids are available from a variety of sources. Many can be readily obtained from users who sell and distribute steroids in local gyms. Since the passage of the 1990 act, some scientists have even designed special steroids and steroid precursors that would not be detected by commonly used drug tests.
Most startlingly, anabolic steroids can also be easily purchased over the internet. Indeed, a wide variety of anabolic steroids and the needles needed to administer them are available directly on E-Bay.
Steroid abuse may have serious health consequences for users. A teenager’s growth may never have the chance to mature. Short-term side effects may include sexual and reproductive disorders, sterility and severe acne. Masculine effects in women, such as deepening of the voice, body and facial hair growth and balding are not reversible.
Long-term risks include liver cancer, jaundice, fluid retention, high blood pressure, kidney tumors, heart attacks and stunted growth.
Parents ought to look for possible signs that may signal the use of steroids or products that act like steroids in the body. These include:
! Significantly more muscle tone or 20 additional pounds of weight in a relatively short period of time, such as over the summer
! Severe acne breakouts and oily skin
! Depression, moodiness, anger, frustration
Moreover, the potential for severe psychological side effects may lead to aggression, delusions and depression.
The pressures facing young athletes calls to mind the phrase, "Winning isn’t everything." I’m sure the father from Texas who shared the painful story about his teen-aged son who committed suicide, would agree. Told by his baseball coach that the 6’3", 175 pound high school junior needed to "bulk up" if he wanted to start the senior year, his son began using steroids in an effort to gain weight and muscle. Only after his death did the father learn that his son had been taking steroids to improve his performance on the mound for his high school baseball team.
As chairman of the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, I’m advancing bipartisan legislation designed to curb abuse of anabolic steroids and their precursors. We also need to do more to promote better education and outreach among high school, college and amateur coaches and their teams about the dangers of steroid use.
As schools across Iowa gear up for the fall football season, let’s keep the big picture in perspective. Doing "whatever it takes" to be bigger, stronger, and faster should not include synthetic performance-enhancing substances that jeopardize the growth and well-being of our kids.