Steroids | Teen Ink

Steroids

November 15, 2007
By Anonymous

When I was in middle school, one of my goals was to get muscles, such as wrestlers and boxers. Now, that I have a weight training class, I realized that some people uses steroids to get muscles more quickly. In my opinion, the use of steroids in sports is a really bad thing. Why? Because using steroids is unfair to other athletes who don’t use them. The United States needs to act against this situation.

One reason steroids are unfair is that they can cause a lot of damage to the body. According to Toxic Strength, an article of 2004, “Anabolic steroids are inherently dangerous, though no matter what else the pills may contain.” An example of what steroids can cause to the body is that they induce a kind of hyper masculinity, like adolescence on. In men, steroids can cause feminizing changes. Even though steroids are more used by men, women are getting more involve in the use of this drug. The use of steroids in women causes a lot of masculinizing changes. For example, a woman who uses steroids can find different changes on her body including body hair, an enlarged clitoris, and a deepened voice.

In addition to causing a lot of damage to the body, adolescents using steroids are at risk as well as adults. Based on the article Toxic Strength, “Steroids can hasten the process of skeletal growth by shutting down growth prematurely.” This drug also causes muscles to grow without a compensating strengthening of the tendons that attach them to the bones. This causes a disproportion that increases the risk of crippling injuries. One of the most dangerous symptoms that steroids induce to in adolescents is that they lower the levels of so-called good cholesterol and raise the bad kind, sometimes alarming levels. These levels can be very toxic to the liver. Although there are more steroid scandals in professional sports, there are also a lot of high-school steroid scandals. The largest high-school steroid scandal varsity-football players were suspended. Do you know what is the percentage of school districts that test athletes for steroids? About 13 percent of school districts test athletes for drugs at all, and virtually none for steroids. This means that the U.S. government and the school districts are not worried about their young athletes.

Finally, steroids are so easy to buy. According to Toxic Strength, “People can even buy steroids via Internet.” Although steroids are dangerous drugs, people don’t need a medical prescription to buy them. Even high school students can buy steroids. In the Internet, adults and adolescents can find thousands of web pages that sell steroids. To buy steroids via Internet, a person just needs to order them and pay them and that’s all. What does this mean? This means that the United States are more interested in money, wars, and other interests that are convenient for them. The U.S. government should stop this by catching those people who sell steroids.

According to the information given, steroids are really dangerous drugs. Why? Because they can cause a lot of damage to the body. Although steroids are more used by adults, many adolescents are getting involved in the use of this drug. This means that they are at risk as well as adults. Even though steroids are dangerous, they are so easy to buy. Based on this, you can conclude that the United States really needs to act against this situation.


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This article has 1 comment.


on Jul. 8 2010 at 6:36 pm
giggles38 BRONZE, San Jose, California
2 articles 0 photos 20 comments

Favorite Quote:
Come as you are -Kurt Cobain

I really like this article because you pointed out what needed to be pointed out. People just don't seem to care what happens in high school. I think that we need to start testing for drugs in highschool.