When thinking about the use of steroids, people think of many different things. The first few things that may come to mind include negativity towards steroids in relation to the human body, and cheating in sports. It is not surprising that steroids have a large influence in the world of sports today since the Russian Olympic team first discovered them in the 1960s. After their introduction by the Russian Olympic weightlifting team in the 1960s, steroids would be involved not only in the world of sports but would continue their prevalence in any gym. The American Olympic team improved the Russian Formula and came up with the most potent form of anabolic steroid that is prevalent today (Yesalis 48). The Olympic games soon banned all use of steroids and started testing their athletes. Steroids soon after found their way from the amateur Olympic athletes into the hands of professional and collegiate athletes. Not only have anabolic steroids entered the world of sports but they also run the world of professional bodybuilding. Today everyone from high-school students looking for an edge in sports to professional bodybuilders or athletes can use steroids. Because steroids users are characterized as cheaters, and there can be negative health effects, steroids are generally viewed only as bad drugs. The use of anabolic steroids is generally associated with negative health effects, but many people are not truly informed of how they work to stimulate muscles or the true side effects of steroid usage, which often leads to many misconceptions and uniformed conclusions. This paper proves that there can be positives to anabolic steroid use that outweigh the negative health effects which should take anabolic steroids off the class three narcotics list and make them legal again. 

Today we live in the steroid era and the term 'steroid' is constantly used in the media as an adjective to describe an object or event. The news constantly reports the negative health effects that may come with the use of steroids often portraying professional athletes who use steroids as cheaters. The average American is influenced by this constant negativity portrayed by the media. But what is in the media is only what they want you to see. People are very impressionable and the media relies on that to challenge beliefs and common perceptions. The fear of steroids comes from what people do not know. The media usually goes to Dr. Gary Wadler, an advisor to the world anti-doping agency, when they need an expert to report on the subject of steroids. There are a few things that bother Dr. Norm Frost, a top researcher of steroid abuse. The biggest problem for Frost is that Wadler is a physician that goes before the media and says that steroids are bad for humans, but when Wadler is asked to produce a single article to show this in any scientifically way, Wadler can not.  This is where people's misconceptions about steroids come from "and even though the experts know a lot more about steroids, you sure would not know it from watching the news" (Bigger, Faster, Stronger). 

We live in a society today that idolizes the human body due to the constant influence of media and advertisement. The supplement and health industry has capitalized on people's idolization of the perfect body with toned and tan muscles. Health and supplement companies use advertising to make people believe that if they take a supplement, they can look like the cover model on the supplement bottle or advertisement. The cover model usually portrays the "perception of the ideal body image has arguably fueled the development and use of dietary supplements" (Rahnema 1). People try to achieve this distorted image of body that people have been manipulated to believe is ideal through supplements and steroids. People start to use steroids "outside of sports ...  because someone wants to alter his or her physical appearance" (Rivera 2). This use of steroids can be directly linked to the ideal body image that has been portrayed by the media which has also shaped people's conceptions about steroids. 

An abundance of people's beliefs and perceptions about steroids are misconceptions and are not actually true and this stems from the media and advertising. The majority of news stories about steroids are usually only reported because of an incident that the public can relate to. These incidents usually involve the death of athletes ranging from high school students to professionals that were known to take steroids. Most of the time, people will link the word steroids with death but the truth is "according to the Center for Disease Control, tobacco kills 435,000 people per year and alcohol kills 75,000, but death from anabolic steroids, 3 per year" (Bigger, Faster, Stronger).  If one was not convinced yet and still believed that steroids caused major medical problems then we should look at statistics from the hospital. When looking at the list of the top reasons why people go to  "emergency room visits, but [steroid use] is not exactly 1, that would be alcohol, or number 2, cocaine, or number 3, marijuana ...  try number 142, that's even after multivitamins" (Bigger, Faster, Stronger). The fact that multivitamins send more people to the emergency room annually shows that steroids are not as bad as the media portrays them to be. Although we may view steroids as bad because they are linked with death, the statistics are just not there to prove the relationship between steroids and death. 

Another reason people view steroids in a negative light is because they think about the negative health effects that may come with them. People usually view the androgenic effect of steroids, the typical side effects of male puberty, as a substantial negative side effect.  The truth is that steroids are drugs and any drug can have negative health effects. But the main reason steroids are put into inferior thoughts is because of the link between steroid use and sports. Doping in sports is a popular subject that is headlined in printed or multimedia news on a daily basis. Although there are systems set in place to reduce performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports, such as random drug tests, "may elite athlete who abuse the performance enhancing substances have escaped detection" (Birzniece 1). Performance enhancing drugs are prohibited because they give an unfair advantage but with the adverse use of drugs without much regulation, there isn't any advantage at all. Due to the lack of education, people do not understand how steroids are typically used and how they actually affect the body.

Although media and advertisement has led to many Americans to encompass many misconceptions about steroids, there needs to be an increase in education to discount these misconceptions. First we must understand what a steroid is and how it affects the body. A steroid is a synthetic version of the naturally produced human hormones. The word steroid is commonly used to describe any performance-enhancing drug. Amphetamines and human growth hormone are performance-enhancing drugs that commonly get referred to as steroids but they are false steroids because they do not mimic naturally produced human hormones. The most common form of steroid is an anabolic steroid synthetically created to resemble male testosterone. Anabolic steroids "or anabolic-androgenic steroids  ...  promote the growth of muscle," referring to their anabolic effects on the body (Peterson 1). Steroids help by promoting the growth of muscle by "stimulating certain parts of a muscle cell" (Rivera 1). Although steroids help produce muscle mass when used, it is appropriate to understand that taking steroids will not make you look like a body builder over night. Also, there are several different ways to take steroids. One can inject them with a needle or one can take pills that contain anabolic steroids. Not only are there injections and pills but there are creams, gels, and patches that can be used to absorb steroids through the skin. There are different ways to actually get the steroids into your body and there are different views on how often to take steroids. A person can cycle through steroids, taking doses for a period of time and then stopping for a period of time before restarting or one can stack steroids and take multiple steroids at a time. Not only can people cycle or stack steroids, one can use a method of pyramiding their use of steroids meaning that they slowly increase their dose of anabolic steroid before reaching a peak and then gradually reducing the dose before tapering off ("Anabolic Steroids" 1). Steroids can show positive physical effects such as muscle growth if paired with the correct dosage, diet, and workout plan. 

Steroids have been linked with serious negative side effects leading to their negative connotation. The stereotypical after school special will teach kids that steroid will lead to acne, organ failure and irregular deformities in sex organs. There are side effects to steroids but it is important to understand that a drug will affect every single person who takes it differently. A full list of short term side effects include shrinking testicles, decreased sperm count, baldness, development of breasts, increased risk for prostate cancer, growth of facial hair or body hair, deepened voice, and stunted growth or hormone levels. Some long-term effects include kidney problems, liver damage, enlarged heart, high blood pressure, and changed in blood cholesterol. Not only are there physical effects to steroid abuse but steroids can also cause mood swings, fatigue, restlessness, loss of appetite, sleep problems, and decreased sex drive ("Anabolic Steroids" 1). The majority of short term side effects can be reversed once steroid use has stopped but they long term physical side effects can last a lifetime. Although there is a "growing body of evidence [indicating] that the use of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) can be dangerous to overall health," steroids are just like any other drug used by medical professionals that comes with side effects (Thorlindsson 1). All drugs are designed to have positive effects and affect the body a certain way, but this usually comes with some side effects too. Taking aspirin for a headache comes with risks and reward just like taking steroids comes with a risk to reward ratio.  

In 1990, congress passed the Anabolic Steroid Control Act making anabolic steroids or any other steroid a class three narcotic and making anyone who possessed steroids a federal drug criminal. Before this new law was enacted, Congress met in 1989 and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Federal Drug Association (FDA), and the American Medial Association (AMA) all testified against enacting a law that made steroids illegal to possess and use. During these Congressional meetings, Don Hooton testified to enact a law that made steroids illegal. Don Hooton testified on behalf of his son Taylor Hooton who committed suicide. "His parents and a doctor familiar with the case said they believe that Taylor's death was related to depression that he felt upon discontinuing the use of anabolic steroids" (Longman 1). Taylor Hooton soon became the poster boy of congress and people who wanted to enact this new law. Associating a child's face with death due to steroids rather than listening to the experts that testified before persuaded the public opinion. The Anabolic Steroid Control Act was soon enacted.

There are a few discrepancies in the way that the Anabolic Steroid Control Act was passed. The first thing that we must look at is the death of Taylor Hooton. Taylor was using steroids to improve his high school baseball abilities but when "Taylor was tested for drugs ...  his parents said they later discovered that the screening had involved recreational drugs, not steroids" (Longman 3). Even though his parents were suspicious that Taylor was using steroids, they caught him using other drugs. Not only was Taylor taking anabolic steroids but he was also using other drugs too. His parents soon got him to see a doctor and psychiatrist. Taylor fell into depression after he stopped using steroids and his psychiatrist put him on SSI's or antidepressants. Taylor's death was clearly linked with steroids, but it is believed that steroids were not the main or only cause. While experts believe that steroids and other factors led to Taylor's death, Don Hooton does not believe this. Don believes that steroids only killed his son and he used that mindset in the Congressional hearings. The emotion of Taylor's death was used to convince Congress and others that steroids were a serious issue that needed to be outlawed. Taylor's death was the main evidence used to outlaw steroid use but one can believe that other factors played a role. The Anabolic Steroid Control Act was enacted on false evidence and should not of been enacted. 

Professional Athletes, the public's hero's, have been using steroids to entertain the public yet athletes only account for about 15% of the population that uses steroids. The majority of the population of steroid users is the average gym rat, which also rely on the health and supplement world to receive the large muscles they want. If there is no excuse to be the strongest one can be in the gym, why has congress enacted a bill that makes steroids illegal? Congress enacted a bill to try to keep the integrity of sports and create a level playing field for athletes. Yet, professional athletes will still do what ever it takes to get a competitive edge. "So if we really want to level the playing field, it may be time to head in the other direction" and look to legalize performance enhancers (Smith 1).  Professional athletes have tremendous talents and steroids can help them train in the gym to take those talents to the next level. There should be no outlaw of steroids for the general public but whether they should be outlawed in professional sports is a different matter. 

Perceptions about steroids have been swayed and manipulated by news and advertising for years. Many people's perceptions about steroids are wrong and fall into general misconceptions. Like any other drug, steroids have positive and negative side effects. Congress enacted a law that made anabolic steroids illegal with no true evidence but rather enacted the law to confirm these misconceptions and scare the public away from their use. With more education about steroids without their abuse, steroids can show positive effects without side effects. Steroids should become legal fro use again because "supervised doping practice s likely to provide greater prospect for ensuring equality of competition" (Anderson152). There needs to be more research done to justify whether steroids are truly as bad for ones health as the media portrays them to be. 

