Think of the children!!!
Being an athlete myself, I want to make it clear that I’m not making this a personal attack on anyone who has taken steroids….I’m blogging about this because it is a serious problem that has serious consequences. You may be asking yourself “how is this a social problem?” Well, when you look at the fact that athletes are so overexposed and that so many people think of athletes as role models, (visit this site for more on that: http://www.geocities.com/~slopitch/drsquat/fredkids.htm) you’ll have situations where kids can take steroids as a result.
But the point is that this is a health issue as well. We can’t possibly accept our kids taking things that destroy their bodies so how can we accept “role models” doing the same. By showing them images like this: 
the youngsters may realize that there are actually serious long-term side effects that are not taken seriously by athletes. It could also help curb steroid abuse by high schoolers (visit this link for more: http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/teenage-steroid-use-a-disturbing-trend-amongst-high-school-kids-567041.html) which has become a growing concern. The article reports that 12% of high school boys and 2% of high school girls have taken steroids, with more than a half million kids using them across the US. It’s not hard to get steroids, they are availible in some health stores as well as over the internet. Some gyms also have “back rooms” where dealers sell steroids illicitly. It seems as though they don’t think that it’s a big enough problem to worry about. Winning at all costs seems to be the major motivation behind taking steroids (according to Ann Freeman in this article: http://www1.umn.edu/umnnews/Feature_Stories/The_dope_on_steroids_Why_some_athletes_take_the_risk.html). Baseball seems to be the biggest violator of steroid abuse out of all the major sports….or maybe it is the only sport where the players aren’t quick enough to mask what they’re taking….Nonetheless, here is an article regarding a report that was published that named all active baseball players who were taking steroids (the Mitchell Report: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3153509). Maybe if they were scared straight by images similar to the one above, they would think twice….Here’s an article that could be a useful way for parents and coaches to talk to their kids about steroid abuse: http://www.aiaacademy.org/story/?id=77
Really interesting – what would you say though to people that there have been awareness campaigns on other issues – smoking and drugs generally – that don’t seem to necessarily change behaviour. Do we have any research on the motivation of athletes to take steroids? What do we know about the suppliers of steroids…are there certain sports in which is prevalent? How much does regulation effect this issue?
Actually, I came across a couple of interesting sites that I added to my blogroll that talk about the psychological factors that motivate athletes to take steroids, one of them being winning at all costs. The reason that campaigns might work with this is because it seems that sports has become a part of pop culture in a way, and for whatever reason athletes have more of an effect on people than some politicians do….using them as a medium to communicate the message might work