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The Daily Tar Heel

A Pumped-Up Problem

Anabolic Steroid Use Uncovered at Student Recreation Center

Beyond the daily iron-pumping, vein-popping routines of the Student Recreation Center lies a secret life.

It's a life of syringes and pills, illegalities and thousands of dollars.

It's a life obvious to a few, hidden to most.

Illegal anabolic steroids, the drugs that helped bring Arnold Schwarzenegger fame and Olympian Ben Johnson shame, are no strangers to UNC's SRC. In fact, some say they're right at home in the student gym.

"They're very popular at Carolina," said a 23-year-old senior who has been taking steroids for nearly two years. "No, wait, I'll put 'extremely' before that. They're extremely popular."

The senior, who will be referred to as John, talked to The Daily Tar Heel on a condition of anonymity.

John, along with a 21-year-old senior who will be called Dave, shed light onto the clandestine world of anabolic steroid use at UNC. Dave also started taking steroids in the summer of 1999.

Anabolic steroids provoke nitrogen retention, which causes protein synthesis and leads to an increase in muscle mass and weight, said UNC Professor Bill Prentice, coordinator of the sports medicine program.

"They will make you bigger, stronger, faster," Prentice said.

John, who said he's always been a "big guy," started taking steroids to regain weight that he lost after having surgery. He first got the drugs through a friend from Charlotte.

"I planned on doing it one time," he said. "I think everybody does, to tell you the truth. In addition, I heard all these great things like, 'Oh you're going to take steroids. It's not going to hurt you.'"

But John didn't stop after one cycle, which can last from six to 14 weeks.

Before he took steroids, John was stuck bench-pressing 350 pounds. He had hit a natural plateau and was tired of killing himself in the gym without seeing the results he expected.

But steroids and continued heavy weightlifting changed all that. Now John's aiming to break the 500-pound bench-press mark by August.

"Unfortunately, steroids work," said Dr. Teresa Moore, clinical assistant professor and undergraduate coordinator in the Department of Exercise Science at the University of South Carolina. "People want a quick fix with everything. We're in a society that wants everything yesterday. We're the same way with improving our bodies."

Like John, Dave also thought steroids were a one-time experience. But the new muscle, the new definition and the new way he viewed himself kept him wanting more. Dave now said steroids will always be a part of his workouts as long as he has the time to fully dedicate himself to the gym.

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"You don't become chemically dependent on it," Dave said. "You become physically dependent on it. You see these results, and you like it, so when you stop taking them and it goes away, you just want it back. It's almost like it gives you so much confidence and motivation that when it goes away you're like, 'Shit, this sucks now."

But unlike John, Dave got introduced to steroids through the Internet. He said he first bought them from online pharmacies, two in Europe and one in Asia.

But while the drugs were easy to come by, the fear of not knowing exactly what he was taking turned Dave off of Internet sources.

Moore, who is also a bodybuilder, said she could understand why. She said she knew someone who once paid $250 for anabolic steroids and received a $3 bottle of the vitamin Niacin instead.

"You don't know the conditions it was manufactured in," Moore said. "Half don't know what country it's made in. They don't even know if they're getting what they think they're getting. Would I trust that? No way."

Trust it or not, steroids have made their way to UNC. And it doesn't look like they're leaving anytime soon.

Combined, John and Dave said they have talked to 12 different people at the SRC about how to get or use anabolic steroids. Both estimated that some 30 students who lift at the University's recreation center are on the drugs.

And a study by Dr. Charles Yesalis, professor of health and human development at Penn State University, found that nearly 40 percent of American males 12 years or older plan to, or have, experimented with anabolic steroids.

"The more you do it, the more you find out other people do it," John said. "To get them on your own, it's easy. I know a lot of people taking them. There are a lot of guys in there who you wouldn't think were taking them, small guys, that really are."

Some take them because they want veins to streak down their arms and legs and individual muscle fibers to flash across their flexing chest.

Others want to answer the famous question of "How much you bench?" with "Way more than you."

Of course not all muscle-bound men "pop 'roids." Just because the bar bends from the weight someone squats or because a person can press more weight than two or three men combined doesn't mean he's on steroids.

But then again, it might be a good indicator.

"If he's big enough to catch your eye, chances are he's been on them," Dave said. "There's only so much your body can do without them."

Added John, "It's hard to get to the size I'm at without taking something in the past. And I'm going to tell you flat out that unless you're genetically gifted, like (professional bodybuilder) Flex Wheeler, there's no way. It's just impossible."

Over the years, Dave and John have taken several different kinds of anabolic steroids. They include Anadrol, Dianabol, Decabolin, Finaplex, Primobolon, Sustanon, Testosterone Enanthate, Testosterone Propionate, Winstrol and Equipoise, a favorite of both men.

"This is stupid," Moore said after hearing what the two have tried. "This is absolutely stupid. They're going to kill themselves."

Some steroids increase muscle strength, some add size, and others burn fat. Some, like Anadrol, are taken orally, while others, like Equipoise, are injected with a needle.

Dave first started on Sustanon and John on Decabolin and testosterone. But both soon realized that the more expensive the drugs, the better the results.

"If you're going to get a good cycle, you're not going to spend less than $400," John said. "You could easily take a cycle for like $200 or $250. The thing about it is you're going to get big as shit. But the only problem is you're going to lose a lot of it."

It is surprisingly easy for students to get their hands on these drugs, considering that they're placed in the same legal class as opium, morphine and amphetamines.

Illegal possession of anabolic steroids is a felony and punishable by up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Jeremy Burke, a junior exercise and sports science major and a personal trainer who knows John and Dave, said he has heard of a number of ways students can buy steroids while on campus.

"If someone at Carolina wanted to get them now and they had the money ready, it would probably take them two days, three days to get them," Burke said.

In 1990, the Department of Justice said the black market for steroids was $300 million a year. Today, the market has an estimated value of more than $400 million.

However, University police Maj. Jeff McCracken said there hasn't been an on-campus arrest for steroid possession while he's been on the force. He started working at UNC in 1993.

But underground steroid use still exists at UNC.

"For some reason, you hear kids asking about them all the time," Moore said. "And unfortunately, it's bigger than what you realize."

Prentice said one reason steroids are so popular and easy for students to get is that people are more concerned with preventing the use of street-related drugs, like cocaine, than anabolic steroids.

"We've had them brought to our door, (sent) in the mail; I've even taken stuff in the dorms to people," Dave said. "Cops are whatever. They're not going to be worried about getting a cycle or a bottle of test(osterone) or a bottle of Sust(anon). They're going to be worried about who these other people are getting them from. It's so minor. I would carry it in my pocket. If we were dealing steroids that would be different."

But Moore said taking steroids, especially to the extent John and Dave do, is not minor.

Aside from the legalities of using the drugs, Moore said the side effects are serious.

Such side effects include heart disease, liver tumors, liver toxicity, acne, hair loss and "'roid rage," or increased aggression. Men could also experience shrinking of the testicles and the development of breast tissue, a process called gynecomastia.

"I've actually seen breast tissue so large that the men could have used a bra," Moore said.

Despite the risks, John, Dave and any number of other UNC students continue the steroid lifestyle.

But research is done, and precautions are taken. Credible Web sites, journals, books and word-of-mouth all help in finding the safest way to use steroids, though Moore argues that there's no safe, non-medical way to take the drugs.

John and Dave take anti-estrogen pills to prevent gynecomastia and take Milk Thistle to protect the liver. They also take a longer time than usual off between cycles, typically two to three months, to avoid letting the steroids build up in their systems. They hardly drink alcohol while they're on the drugs, and they take in plenty of water.

"The sad thing to say is the more you take, the more you learn," said John, who added that he believes people who use steroids know more about their effects, both positive and negative, than doctors.

Although they gained weight and surpassed their natural plateaus, Dave and John continue to swallow the pills and inject the liquid. They've had objectives and met them only to set new ones and meet them too.

But they don't do it for the attention of women or the admiration of other men.

Rather, they do it for themselves.

"It's just personal," John said. "I do it because I want to break goals. I don't do it for anybody else. I don't do it for girls because I have a girlfriend, and I don't do it for guys because I don't give a shit about what people think about me."

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.