There was a news story today about steroid testing for high school athletes.
Now anytime someone under 21 posts in the steroids section, they get a a dozen messages saying “You have no business doing steroids at your age!”
So is testing high school athletes to find out who’s on the juice & benching those who are Big Brother or a good idea?
Is this thread supposed to be in the Steroids section, or did you mean it to be here in Politics and World Issues?
To answer your question… High schoolers have no idea what they’re doing.
Heck, I didn’t even know until a day or three ago that when tapering off, you have to up anti-estrogen drugs and natural pro-test production. This is so depression doesn’t occur, amongst other things.
Factor in a teenagers’ already topsy-turvy hormonal fluctuations of highs / depressions, and you get a situation where they are at considerable risk for harm. Especially when they don’t know what they’re doing… which they don’t.
The measure is to stop use. If kids think they’ll be tested, they may not use. If they don’t use, they may just stay healthy. Face it, they don’t need test; they have more than they need at that age.
I meant to put this message in here because my question is more about how for goverment should go in regulating individual behavoir and protecting people from their own poor choices than it is about designing an effective cycle, which is what most of the steroid section is about.
My feeling is that adults should be free to asses the risks of behavoir they are considering and make their own choices. OTOH, high school athletes should never feel they need to mess with their endochrone systems just to be competitive in their choosen sports.
Kid’s don’t even know what they’re taking. They’ll get a cortio steroid for an infection and think they’re juicing. This is why those quetionaires of a few years ago where 61% of all high school kids did anabolic steroids where worthless and bogus
High school athletes already submit urine tests… why not just look for synthetic T?
Not really an invasion of privacy, especially if athletes are made to sign an honor contract at the beginning of their sport, stating they won’t do drugs (including juice).
On the political front, I think the government should allow us to make our own INFORMED decisions.
It’s our life to use or abuse.
When you get a bit older, or you are suffering from this or that disease, it seems a bit strange for the government to stop you from trying things that might be able to help you.
I realize doctors are supposed to be knowledgeable, but in today’s day and age the average citizen has access to a lot of scientific and medical information and can certainly take responsibility for their own actions.
It wouldn’t be hard to give people over 21 the ability to pay for and take “exemption exams”, so that they wouldn’t trivially cause themselves harm and raise health care costs while using non-addictive substances.
Will it happen, probably not, but I’ve written to my own government to voice my dissatisfaction at not being allowed to make my own choices in various areas due to import restrictions on simple US food supplements.
If the government must act as my parent, then can it not at least just force me to prove I’m thinking clearly and then fuck off? The government is the only parent that doesn’t eventually realize that some children do grow up.
[quote]vroom wrote:
On the political front, I think the government should allow us to make our own INFORMED decisions.
It’s our life to use or abuse.
When you get a bit older, or you are suffering from this or that disease, it seems a bit strange for the government to stop you from trying things that might be able to help you.
I realize doctors are supposed to be knowledgeable, but in today’s day and age the average citizen has access to a lot of scientific and medical information and can certainly take responsibility for their own actions.
It wouldn’t be hard to give people over 21 the ability to pay for and take “exemption exams”, so that they wouldn’t trivially cause themselves harm and raise health care costs while using non-addictive substances.
Will it happen, probably not, but I’ve written to my own government to voice my dissatisfaction at not being allowed to make my own choices in various areas due to import restrictions on simple US food supplements.
If the government must act as my parent, then can it not at least just force me to prove I’m thinking clearly and then fuck off? The government is the only parent that doesn’t eventually realize that some children do grow up.[/quote]
You’re an anarchist.
[quote]kroby wrote:
You’re an anarchist.[/quote]
I’d consider it, but then I’d be lumped in with a group of crazies… 
Seriously though, I think advancing technologies should be used to allow ways for the government to find ways to step back for people that are acting responsibly.
A government may need to protect society, but it no longer has to do so with lowest common denominator policies. Technology should be used to let people differentiate themselves and assume more responsibilities where they desire.
It wouldn’t be hard to do, but changing the mindset certainly would be…
[quote]vroom wrote:
kroby wrote:
You’re an anarchist.
I’d consider it, but then I’d be lumped in with a group of crazies…
Seriously though, I think advancing technologies should be used to allow ways for the government to find ways to step back for people that are acting responsibly.
A government may need to protect society, but it no longer has to do so with lowest common denominator policies. Technology should be used to let people differentiate themselves and assume more responsibilities where they desire.
It wouldn’t be hard to do, but changing the mindset certainly would be…[/quote]
We do have such a process allready, it is called:
“Breaking the law”
If you are clever and mature enough to understand how things work you should be able to get away with it.
So, smoke pot, do steroids, evade taxes, but do it on a clever way.
There are so many BS laws, they could not possibly enforce them all. If you are an adult why look for their approval?
Fuck them.
[quote]orion wrote:
“Breaking the law”
If you are clever and mature enough to understand how things work you should be able to get away with it.
So, smoke pot, do steroids, evade taxes, but do it on a clever way.
There are so many BS laws, they could not possibly enforce them all. If you are an adult why look for their approval?
Fuck them.
[/quote]
To borrow Kroby’s words…
You’re an anarchist.
This isn’t about informed adults making a decision. This is about dumb ass teens (and trust me, we’re ALL dumb asses excepted for the select freaks who graduate med school at age 16, and even they aren’t totally sound…) making a descion that could cause their body serious harm.
Just like drugs and alcohol, teens shouldn’t be doing juice, fake sugar pills or not.
Especially not high school athletes, who (I believe) should be held to a high level of scrutiny. My school lost its homecoming football game because our receivers had a hang-over.
[quote]Beowolf wrote:
My school lost its homecoming football game because our receivers had a hang-over. [/quote]
Somehow, this doesn’t strike me as a significant issue. Perhaps it was because I had my own share of hangovers in high school.
It is sort of part of growing up. We make our own choices, some of them bad ones, and hopefully we learn from them.
However, if it isn’t clear, I don’t think students should be using steroids, that’s for sure. It’s not a comparable risk…