Anabolic-androgenic steroids are probably the least dangerous category of drugs scheduled under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) even though the medical side effects are irrelevant to the scheduling criteria of the CSA. According to the American Medical Association, they do not meet the traditional Control Substances Act criteria for scheduling. Even as the “bastard child of controlled substances,” there has been little advocacy for the reform of anabolic steroid laws.
Anabolic steroids are currently illegal for non-medical purposes such as performance enhancement or cosmetic enhancement. If you think that anabolic steroids should be legal for the purposes in adults who do not compete in sports subject to a doping code prohibiting performance enhancing drugs, you may want to consider strategies discussed by other drug law reformers.
According to Alex Coolman of the Drug Law Blog, how you frame the legalization argument is crucial:
But I agree that it’s time to move away from the argument that “we should legalize drugs because, hey, they aren’t that harmful.”
My take on the “right” approach tends to be more oriented around civil rights and the costs of using prisons as tools of social control.
Just because you believe the dangers of anabolic steroids have been exaggerated, manufactured, or overstated doesn’t make for an effective anabolic steroid legalization strategy.
Pete Guither has some advice for drug reformers at Drug War Rant. He focuses on legalization efforts for marijuana, but replace pot with steroids and the advice is equally useful.
What we need to do is show the people that legalization is safer than prohibition.
We need to convince people that marijuana prohibition is endangering their children, robbing their checkbooks, hurting their property values and causing moral decay. We need them to understand that legalizing pot will make their streets safer and eliminate poverty.
You get the idea. Self-interest.
Now that’s not so critical to you or I. We understand what’s at stake. But we forget that the rest of the population doesn’t have our knowledge. We have to shake them out of their drug policy illiteracy.
Wrong approach:
Pot isn’t very harmful. We can protect against drugged drivers. It’s not a proper law. We should legalize marijuana.
Right approach:
Pot prohibition is causing criminals to prey on your children. We must legalize and regulate it NOW to cut back on damage to our cities and our families.
The only way to motivate people enough so that they’ll go past what the government tells them they should think is to make it personal.
The government is spending a lot of money and resources in the war on steroids (as part of the overall war on drugs). What is the cost-benefit of incarcerating steroid users? Wouldn’t legalizing steroids and regulating them be a better alternative?
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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