What is your position on steroids?

Miscellaneous General
1

I know this really isn’t an economics question and so it lies outside the bounds of the Austrian school.

However, I am curious about what the posters of this forum think about steroids? Should they be legal? Do you buy the sort of mainstream story about how awful they are and whatnot?

I’ve been working out for years and I’ve always wanted to do steroids, but after doing some research as a freshman in college I decided to wait until I was closer to 25 to use them. I’ll be 24 in July and I know I still want to try steroids, but they’re so damn risky and expensive and it’s hard to get proper doctor supervision while taking them because doctors aren’t allowed to prescribe them.

So, members of this forum, what is your stance on this issue?

EDIT: Doctors can prescribe them, but I can’t just go into a doctor’s office and ask for them because I want to get ripped or whatever. I have to have some other reason.

2

Not illegal.

3

My fault, I should’ve said “should they be available over the counter?”

There’s like this crazy red tape one has to go through to get them.

4

They make you look stupid.

Also unsportsmanlike.

5

I don’t really participate in any activities where steroids are going to give me some unfair advantage over someone else.

But if sports players want to take steroids, I say let them. If the other players don’t want to take them and they can’t hang, I think that’s their fault.

6

Which makes all the little kids interviewed on CNN whimper and pout.

7

Reminds me of an old SNL skit from the Steve Martin era, about the first Olympics with legal steroids. It goes something like “so far over 100 world records have been shattered!” Then one weight lifter’s arms rip out.

8

Lol. All humor aside, that’s a risk you gotta be willing to take.

9

I don’t think there’s any athleticism with doping. It wouldn’t be the Olympics anymore, but the pharmaceutics.

10

There should be no law against that.

11

They still gotta train like beasts though.

12

I think that steroids should be legal and I believe that steroids can be beneficial to adults, but only those adults who use them under the close supervision of an expert who can prescribe doses based on the various hormonal cycles and whatnot that need to be dealt with in order to avoid the adverse long-term side effects.

13

You still have to train just as hard to be the best. The only difference is that your overall results improve. But since everyone would be using steroids, it would be just as hard as it was before. Also, it would be a great equalizer for those who naturally produce less testosterone and HGH.

14

And for a fascinating smorgasbord of views:

http://www.startingstrength.com/resources/forum/showthread.php?t=13975&highlight=steroids

15

Agreed. I think that what really happens because of all these rules is that it’s harder for someone like me to get them cheaply and be able to afford the doctor supervision. Regulating these drugs makes them more dangerous for someone like me.

16

Exactly. Now you have to buy them from shady sources and you have a greater incentive to not seek supervision from a physician.

17

Much like Formula One is dominated by the driver with the best engineers, so would athletics be dominated by the athlete with the best chemist.

18

Yup. The last time I checked (and it’s been awhile so my numbers could be way off) a full cycle (including off cycle stuff) costs like 300-600 bucks. Add on the doctor supervision and we could be talking 1000-1200 dollars per cycle. So basically, it’s cheaper to just get the drugs and skip the doctor. I’m sure a lot of people do just that.

19

They’d still have to train really really hard though. Steroids are just a tool, a lot is still dependent on the user.

20

That gave me an idea for an extreme marketing slogan: HIGH TIME PREFERENCE! IT’S FOR PUSSIES!