Foul Play: Sports, Doping and Teens
A Roundtable Discussion

Anabolic steroids are drugs that build lean muscle mass, along with strength and stamina. The discussion focused on how peer pressure and the pressure to win drives some student athletes to use steroids, and how coaches often seem to ignore warning signs of steroid use among their players and the risks associated with using the drugs.

The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign and The Hollywood Reporter sponsored the event, which was held at 20th Century Fox Studios. Television writers, network executives and sportswriters attended the session. Panelists included:

• Bob Dowling, Hollywood Reporter Publisher and Editor in Chief who hosted the event;
• Dr. Linn Goldberg, M.D., executive director of Portland, Ore-based Athletes Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids (ATLAS), who moderated the discussion;
• Dr. Gary Green, M.D., a specialist in internal and sports medicine at the UCLA Department of Family Medicine and chairman of the NCAA Drug Test Committee;
• Greg Schwab, associate principal of Tigard (Oregon) High School and a former professional football player and former steroid user;
• Two Los Angeles area high school students: female athlete Aziza, and male athlete Darian.

What follows are excerpts from their conversation:

Dr. Linn Goldberg: "Studies indicate that anabolic steroids are used by up to 11 percent of teenage male athletes, but female athletes are the fastest growing group using the drug. Most steroid users are polydrug abusers. They are not 'clean' kids. Steroids produce testosterone levels up to 100 times the normal natural level, which can lead to liver damage, high blood pressure, depression, mood swings and shrunken testicles. They also can irreversibly stunt growth in adolescents."

Dr. Gary Green: "Anabolic steroids are Controlled substances. Yet, through a quirk in the 1994 drug law, some are (allowed to be put in) over-the-counter dietary supplements. These are easily available in stores and over the Internet. Some of these supplements will cause an athlete to test positive for steroids. One of these, Androstine, was popularized by St. Louis Cardinal first baseman Mark Maguire. Maguire's use of Androstine (led to) quadrupled sales of Androstine. As chairman of the NCAA Drug Test Committee, I can tell you that most 'positives' result from the use of supplements. Athletes lose one year of eligibility for testing positive. I'm also concerned about the widespread use of Creatine, which is an amino acid that is unregulated. We don't know the long-term effects, especially on kids. There are potential problems with kidneys and with electrolytes."

Darian: "I didn't even know Androstine contained a steroid. And coaches and athletes think Creatine is okay because it's over-the-counter. There are ads for it plastered all over the gym walls."

Schwab: "Kids are under pressure from their peers, their parents and their coaches to excel, so some turn to performance enhancing drugs. That pressure to succeed is communicated to the athlete. You want to please the coach. When I had done everything my body could do naturally, it wasn't enough. I wanted to play pro football, so I went to the strength coach and I asked him about steroids. He gave me a book. He never said, 'no, you don't want to do that."

Dr. Green: "If coaches don't want you to do something, they usually make it very clear."

Greg Schwab: "That's right. Coaches are, by nature, Control freaks. It's hard to miss athletes who you believe are on steroids. They have all the symptoms: erratic behaviors, weight gain, strength gain …puffy appearance. So in my opinion, coaches usually know what's going on."

Dr. Goldberg: "We need more training for coaches. Often the kids know a little more than the coaches. Most states do not require that coaches be certificated teachers."

Darian: "I never heard of people around me using it until I started to lift weights for the football team. Then I was exposed to other guys on the team who used steroids. High school sports are a proving ground for college. So kids feel like they need to impress everyone who is watching. It's about body image. It's about getting huge. If you're not getting larger, you're not going to play. For a lot of kids, an athletic scholarship is the only way they're going to go to college. They'll try anything to get an edge, to please the coach."

Dr. Goldberg: "Athletes are risk takers, sensation seekers. We had a Portland State University student who was trying out with an NFL team. He called me two weeks before the try-out and asked if he should take steroids. I said, 'no.' His wife later found a vial of steroids with his jersey number on it."

Aziza: "For female athletes at my high school, weight is a big issue. Steroids produce a lean, muscular appearance. I know girls who go days without food. I've never taken any drugs because I've seen what it does to people. I've had friends messed up. But I've been on some kind of a diet for sports ever since I was eight years old. It's all about recognition and scholarship money."

Dr. Green: "Most athletes want sports clean. They are the biggest advocates for a level playing field. Athletes have the lowest drug use of any group. They are the greatest advocates against steroid use."

Aziza: "Most athletes I know want to feel good about their performance. To me it's a matter of integrity…that I can do all this without steroids. I believe in myself. I'm running 100 percent. But the other guy is running 100 percent on steroids."

Dr. Goldberg: "The internet is rampant with misinformation. There is a steroid 'Bible' available on line on how to use steroids 'safely.' Steroids are thought of differently from other drugs. We use them as advertising parlance. We give them positive language value… "

Dr. Green: "Students interested in taking steroids 'research,' the drug. But they never talk to anyone who says 'no.' The problem is steroids 'work.' You do get bigger. You can train harder. There was a lot of bad publicity over Ben Johnson's use of steroids, but he did win races until he was caught. Kids think they won't get caught, and they definitely don't think of the long-term physical consequences. They just think steroids will help them win races."

Dr. Goldberg: "We have not really addressed the demand issue. We may not be able to easily change the drug culture, but we can change the norms of a team's own culture."