SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A local high school football coach calls it an epidemic. He's talking about illegal steroid use, and experts say is as dangerous, unpredictable, and life threatening as meth use.
Your student athlete may be using it right now, and doubt the stuff can kill you. Young student athletes, boys and girls, look up to the pros thinking, 'How can I be faster and stronger?', but the real question they should be asking themselves is, 'Should I gamble with my life? Is it really worth the risk?'
It's all part of the the quest to be leaner, faster, stronger; to be the best.
"Statistically, one in 20 student athletes have tried or are trying anabolic steroids," says Alan Bowyer with Anti-steroid National Assembly Tour.
Students athletes who are looking for that edge instead find physical, and emotional problems, or even trouble with the law.
“Because it is illegal and it is cheating,” says Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.
Monday at Alta High School students got an "in your face" presentation on the risks of steroid use. Coaches, drug agents, and Mark Shurtleff made sure not to sugarcoat the problem.
"It's all the stuff going on behind the scenes and the kids are talking to each other and they are all strength training on their own and they're all saying 'hey you need this'. This really isn't right,” says Shurtleff.
“Of the 400 student athletes you have here,that would mean roughly that 20 students in this school are using anabolic steroids,” says Bowyer.
Surprisingly teenage girl student athletes, cheerleaders, even models show the most increase in steroid use.
“These young men and women seem to think that in order to be successful like these pros they have to take these illegal drugs,” says Les Hamilton, Alta High School football coach.
Coach Hamilton says he hopes we are below the national average in terms of use here in Utah, but he said without a doubt we have a problem.
For more information, go to:
www.findtreatment.samhsa.gov 1-800-662-help
www.taylorhooton.org
