Jeddahs Young Turning to Bodybuilding Drugs

Use of steroids is common in the bodybuilding subculture. Many are available over the counter from pharmacies in the city, and others can be got on a thriving black market available to those in the know.

Badr Al-Shibani, a pharmacist in Riyadh, is also a bodybuilder. He took a professional interest in discovering exactly what the use of steroids does to sportsmen.

“With the specialist knowledge that any pharmacist has, you’d be crazy to try them out. Steer clear,” he advises.

But many are not listening.

He said that the bodybuilding culture divides roughly into three areas — the professionals, those who want to lose or gain weight, those who just wish to pose and be admired by others.

“Many diet supplements that claim to help transform the body into a mass of muscle are completely legal and available here but are not approved by the Federal Drugs Administration,” he said.

“But that isn’t where the real danger lies.”

He regards the real danger people who want rapid changes in their appearance with minimum effort: Something for nothing. They pay a heavy price.

“It took me six years of regular training to increase my body mass by 20 percent,” he said. “Many people want to change it in months. Why work like that when a similar effect can be achieved in three months? They are willing to pay anything to do it.”

Muscle can be built at remarkable rates with the use of steroids, often several kilograms a month.

“Generally speaking, people are very ignorant of the effects,” Badr said. “They prefer to take advice from a role model in the gym rather than from a medical professional.”

Doctors as a rule will not prescribe steroids for anything other than strictly medical reasons. Professional sportsmen and women around the world have access to medical specialists in the field of performance enhancing drugs and, should they choose to use them, they can be used safely with specialist advice which is strictly adhered to. Advice from other bodybuilders and accessing impure or even fake drugs from black-market contacts is to invite trouble.

The trade in steroids in the Kingdom appears to be thriving. The profit margins are enormous. Tablets available for half a dollar outside the Kingdom sell here for up to $50.

“The demand is so great among some bodybuilders, they buy anything from almost anyone.”

Badr related a case where a bodybuilder was sold Aspirin as a steroid.

“For a whole month the user believed he was getting bigger and stronger. He actually got a little stronger,” he said.

The dangers to the heart and stomach lining of taking large quantities of Aspirin are well documented and very serious.

Drugs and growth hormones designed for animal use are circulating on the black market as well as the human versions.

“People buy them because they cost less and do produce results,” said Badr, “but what it does to the user in the long term is yet unknown.”

The hidden danger is in the assumption that many users make that the more they take, the faster and greater the build up of muscle mass will be.

“That is entirely wrong and very dangerous,” said Badr.

This causes some very unhappy side effects. Premature baldness, acne and long term heart problems are just some.

“I know young people, only 24 years old, who have problems with marital relations through their use of steroids affecting their reproductive organs,” he said.

Testicular shrinkage and reproductive malfunction are two common side effects.

Steroids are a low profile drug and don’t attract the publicity of the hard drugs — cocaine, heroine and cannabis. The use of steroids is generally restricted to sportsmen, and particularly those wanting to increase muscle mass or change their appearance. The trade is low profile and affects only a small percentage of the population. It tends not to attract the notice of the authorities.

However, the problem is here and now.

“It’s a long-term problem,” said Badr. “Eventually, the people who use them incorrectly will present with heart and reproductive problems, causing trouble for themselves and tremendous expense to the medical services.”

He thought that the dangers involved far out weighed the temporary gain in image that these extremely dangerous drugs brought about.

With the constant marketing of “image” through advertising, television and Internet, the desire for frustrated young people to want to emulate does not look set to decrease.