Steroids are ingested in pill form or injected into the body to enhance athletic ability. The problem is that anabolic steroids are a schedule III controlled substance - which means "by prescription only," and there are health hazards associated with taking steroids.

Photo Credit: James Tourtellotte

Illegal steroids seized from a southern land border port. Steroids have been linked to cancer, liver damage, and insomnia.

Who's at risk?
An increasing number of American teenagers are taking steroids. Some are concerned about their appearance, others are student athletes looking for a competitive edge.

Professional athletes are another target group for steroid marketers. Since the 1950s, sports figures around the world have fallen victim to steroid abuse. The pattern continues today: athletes in almost every sport have admitted that anabolic steroids are a real problem.

Health hazards
Some of the health hazards are irreversible and include:

1. liver tumors,
2. cancer,
3. jaundice,
4. fluid retention,
5. hypertension,
severe acne, and
6. tearing and rupturing of the tendons.

Steroids can also cause paranoia, loss of appetite, insomnia, headaches, and muscle and joint pain.

The supply chain
You can find illegal steroids in every city and state in the U.S., but the phenomenon of steroid smuggling takes place along the entire southwest border and effects all border offices and ports. The Port of San Ysidro has the largest number of seizures due to the close proximity of the border communities of Tijuana and San Diego. Over the past year, inspectors there have seized between 330 to 340 large loads of steroids. In San Ysidro nine out of every 30 seizures of drugs involve steroids.

According to Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Larry Latocki, steroid traffickers target this port for a number of reasons: closeness to the Mexican border, purchasing steroids is cheap, and steroids can be purchased in Mexico without a prescription. "Drug smugglers do something called 'rat packing,' where they bring small amounts of steroids back and forth across the border several times until they've accumulated a large quantity," says Latocki. "The bottom line is there's big money in selling steroids. And a drug smuggler, who can sell a bottle for $120 a pop, can easily turn a profit."

Steroids are treated like any other illegal drug that threatens the American public - like all illegal narcotics, their sale and possession represent critical links in a larger criminal process, one that funds terrorism, death, and addiction around the world. Smuggle steroids, and expect to be stopped, arrested, fined, and maybe even jailed.

In 1999, the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported 2.7 percent of 8th graders, 2.7 percent of 10th graders, and 2.9 percent of 12th graders had taken anabolic steroids at least once. For 8th and 10th graders, these figures translate into a 50 percent increase over figures from 1991, and for high school students, the increase since 1991 is an equally serious 38 percent.