For students, illegal steroids tempting, available

"It's more prevalent than you might think," said John Burke, an inspector with the Albany County Sheriff's Department drug interdiction unit. "If you tell a kid it can can make you bigger and stronger, what are they going to do? They are immature, and there is money to be made by dealers, and they don't care who you are or how old you are.

"The talk that we hear is they are around. If you go into a high school, you are going to have a contact for any kind of drug you want, including steroids."

Despite the apparent availability of steroids, high school athletes and coaches in the area said steroid use is close to nonexistent at their level.

Lt. Steve Heider, a detective with the Colonie Police Department, said police occasionally hear about steroid availability at high schools, but he was adamant that he doesn't believe usage is prevalent.

"There is no way to quantify it, but it would be a very small percentage," Heider said. "I do not in any way, shape or form think it is being used a lot."

Heider and Burke said there has never been enough evidence to warrant an investigation. They said high school bodybuilders are the most vulnerable to trying steroids because they're exposed to them via college students at weight-lifting clubs.

"Based on college, you'd have to have blinders on to think they aren't available at high schools," Heider said. "A lot of high school and college athletes are looking for whatever they can to better themselves, and unfortunately steroids is in that food chain."

Heider, a detective since 1982, said he couldn't recall any arrests involving steroids at the high school level, but said investigations at colleges and fitness centers have led to arrests of midlevel dealers.

Burke said it is difficult to investigate at the high school level because there are no undercover officers in that age group.

Meanwhile, none of the 15 high school athletes interviewed over the past year by the Times Union for this story admitted to using illegal steroids, and coaches in the area said they think steroid use is negligible.

The most recent survey on steroid use, conducted in 1998 by the New York state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, revealed that 1 percent of a sampling of 21,000 students in grades 7-12 who live in the Capital Region admitted using the substance at least one time. The survey placed steroid use in northeastern New York at 2 percent. There has been no statewide survey.

A 2001 National Institute On Drug Abuse survey put use of steroids at least one time at 2.8 percent in eighth grade, 3.5 percent in 10th, and 3.7 percent in 12th.

Research has shown that anabolic steroids, along with training and a proper diet, can increase muscle strength and power by elevating the body's testosterone level. Steroids are illegal in the United States unless prescribed by a physician for medical reasons.

Side effects can include heart and liver damage, endocrine-system imbalance, elevated cholesterol levels, sexual dysfunction, strokes and aggressive behavior.

The use of steroids by high school athletes is linked to their drive to garner highly competitive athletic scholarships in a world where bigger generally is perceived as better.

But Jack Burger, a longtime football coach at Troy High, said he has never seen steroids as an issue in Section II, the athletic division that comprises the Capital Region.

"People don't realize, the (football) scholarships are few and far between in Section II, and we are lucky if we get four a year," Burger said. "I've been doing this for 21 years, and I don't think I've ever seen a situation where steroids have been used and abused in this area."

Asked if he thinks steroid use by area high school athletes is nonexistent, Burger said: "It's pretty close to it."

John Sodergren, who retired last year after coaching football at Bethlehem High for 29 years, said just because he hasn't seen steroids doesn't mean they're not out there.

"To my knowledge, I've never had anybody I was convinced was using steroids, but I'm not naive enough to say it didn't happen," said Sodergren. He added that use of steroids could be seen as a natural progression from taking nutritional supplements.

"This is a birds-of-a-feather mentality that leads from one thing to another," he said.

Dr. Bruce Dick, an orthopedic surgeon and specialist in sports medicine at Albany Medical Center, warned about steroids not prescribed by doctors.

"Everything else is on the black market, so you would have no idea of its purity," Dick said. "If you use it, you could cause irreversible damage."