High Life : A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : Athletes Are Not Alone in Steroid Use

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. —  A new survey of illicit steroid use by Illinois teen-agers shows athletes aren’t the only ones using the muscle-enhancing drugs.

Of students who reported using steroids, 36% were not members of a school-sponsored athletic team during the 1990-91 school year.

“A lot of non-athletes are experimenting with steroids, just for appearance enhancement and not necessarily for competition,” said Tom Green, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse.

The department and the State Board of Education paid for the survey of 3,054 high school students in the 1990-91 school year, which also found indications that some teachers or coaches may have supplied the drugs, Green said recently.

Twenty-one percent of the users said a teacher or coach had suggested that they use anabolic steroids; 72% said they had obtained steroids primarily from non-medical sources. Within that group, 14% said the source had been a teacher or coach.

“This demonstrates that adults as well as students must be further educated about the dangers of steroids,” said Greg Gaa, an athletic trainer for the Great Plains Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center in Peoria.

But steroid use overall seems to be on the wane. Just under 2%, or 58, of the students surveyed said they had used anabolic steroids for bodybuilding or other non-medical purposes.

A study a year earlier of 15,000 Illinois students in grades seven through 12 found that 3% had used steroids, Green said.

Forty-four of the steroid users were male; 14 were female.

The center conducted the written survey of freshmen and seniors on a random basis at 38 high schools statewide.

Inappropriate steroid use has been linked to sterility, high blood pressure, liver damage, aggressive behavior and other health problems.

“The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.”--Marcus Aurelius (121-180)