It’s great to be a bodybuilder in the United Kingdom. Using steroids for muscle size and strength? No problem. Bodybuilders can legally possess anabolic steroids for personal use. They can even go to needle exchange clinics for free injection supplies. Some clinics even specialize in steroid harm reduction; they offer free access to healthcare professionals and medical testing.
Bodybuilders in countries where steroid possession is highly criminalized (e.g. United States, Australia) can only dream of having it so good.
Steroid laws in the United Kingdom are good for most users… but not all.
Law enforcement officers are generally prohibited from using steroids in the United Kingdom.
The reason is that anabolic steroids are not entirely legal. A commercial transaction involving steroids involves a buyer and a seller.
The buyer is legally protected since the personal possession for self-administration is decriminalized.
The seller? Not so much. The sale of steroids remains strictly illegal.
Steroid dealers, suppliers, manufacturers, traffickers and anyone else who profits from the steroid trade are subject to criminal prosecution under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The maximum sentence for possession for supplying anabolic steroids is 14 years imprisonment.
Cops are therefore presented with a unique problem.
Cops often buy their steroid supply from individuals who are in violation of the Misuse of Drugs Act. In order to complete the steroid transaction, the officers would be forced to overlook or ignore criminal activity or, even worse, protect the criminal enterprise.
(Up until last year, UK steroids users could have imported their personal steroid supply via postal courier or freight services. This conveniently allowed cops to bypass the local criminal element entirely. This is no longer true. Currently, it is only legal to import steroids in cases of personal custody. No more legal ordering of steroids over the internet.)
An officer who purchases them from domestic sources would become susceptible to corruption and participation in the illegal anabolic steroid black market.
Transparency International, an independent organization that monitors corporate and political corruption, found this to be exactly the case. In a report commissioned by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) in England and Wales, the anti-corruption organization found steroid-using cops to be a significant threat to the integrity of law enforcement.
Staffordshire Chief Constable Michael Cunningham, the ACPO spokesperson on professional standards, reported that most of the forty-three forces in England and Wales had cops who were involved in bodybuilding (and steroids) and had developed inappropriate relationships with steroid dealers.
“In most forces there will be a police officer who is into bodybuilding and the gym and who would abuse steroids…” Cunningham said.”[T]hen the relationships they form when they’re using steroids become corrupt and corrosive.”
Thus, the UK steroid laws have created a situation where practically everyone can use steroids except for cops (and of course, drug-tested athletes).
This hardly seems fair as there are very good arguments supporting the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in law enforcement. After all, who wouldn’t want law enforcement to have an “unfair advantage” when fighting real criminals. Cops, in a profession that realistically involves matter of life and death, should have every conceivable performance-enhancing advantage at their disposal in the fight against crime.
But as long as it is illegal to sell steroids in the UK, police federations will likely enforce misconduct regulations that prevent cops from enjoying the performance-enhancing benefits of anabolic steroids in order to ensure cops avoid becoming part of the illicit steroid distribution subculture.
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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