I live in a town 20 miles away from a large army barracks (at Colchester in Eastern England – many young men from that barracks are currently serving in Iraq).
Because of the macho “squaddie” culture ( a squaddie is what we call a GI in England) a lot of blokes there (whether they are serving or not) take steroids to help build up their muscles as they want to compete for girls and they they think the girls like it (although a girl I know from that area said that most girls can tell if someone has been using roids and that it just makes the men into arrogant meatheads)
Steroids are easily available at many gyms in the area.
They may provide quick muscle gain but it is unhealthy for the body and the mind to take these – users sometimes have “roid rages” where they become extremely violent and fight random people due to uncontrollable urges of anger (this leads ot a lot of violence in the local nightclub)
As for penalties, I think it depends what the user has done done.
If he’s been busted for the first time and if its for personal use, they should get a caution (might be called an infraction in your country) and be shown by a healthcare professional the damage that using them can do to the body…
but if they have committed a crime of violence due to steroids (or it has helped them become more angry/violent) then they should go to prison but be carefully watched by mental health professionals to ensure that they don’t just use prison as a way of building their physical strength up more and using it to hurt more people when they are released…
