Steroid Use Growing Among Young Boys

Steroid Use Growing Among Young Boys
November 25, 2002

News Summary

Steroid use has long been popular among athletes, but now law-enforcement officials are seeing an increase in the number of young boys using steroids to look good, the New York Times reported Nov. 22.

While athletes use steroids to gain strength or speed, some youths are turning to illegal steroids to obtain designer bodies. According to narcotics police, young boys who don't play sports are using body-enhancing drugs to get the buff look of a bodybuilder.

"Everybody wants to be big now," said Zeb Nava, a senior at Clearfield High School in Utah. "The majority now are guys that don't do it for sports. They do it for girls. For the look."

According to the latest national survey conducted for federal agencies, nearly half a million teenagers in the United States use steroids each year.

Some using steroids are as young as age 10, putting them at risk for abnormal development.

A survey conducted last year for Blue Cross Blue Shield found that steroid use among boys ages 12 to 17 increased by 25 percent from 1999 to 2000.