An article from Lucas Blake, junior manager for http://www.eurobolic.com, about what a celebrity could do for a anabolic steroid industry and he did not do, because of his political ambitions.
Upon arriving to U.S. our hero was surprised to learn that his American Competitors were leaner and more graceful. On his first American Mr. Universe he came in second and was completely disappointed. His thoughts at the moment were: “I'm away from home… In America, and I'm a loser” a day later he decided: “I’m going to pay them back; I’m going to show them who is really the best!”. He succeeded and became a 7 time Mr. Olympia, a successful actor, and now holds an important political function.
The question here is how one can improve so much over a short period of time. Most bodybuilders know that after working out for a long time one hits a wall where he can’t improve any more – naturally that is. At this point bodybuilders have only two options; to remain as they are or to gain more using steroids. As our man was working really hard (5-7 times per week, was on a constant diet…) for 8 years we can assume he has already hit the wall at that point.
It is obvious that his first American Mr. Universe competition has influenced him much. As can be observed from his statement he was strongly psychologically affected. Furthermore one can discern, by observing his pictures of that era that he suddenly became bulkier. From this we can conclude that he probably did start using Steroids at that point. To discern weather he was taking Deca or some kind of Testosterone mix is not really important for this article but it is obvious that they were readily available at that time.
The main problem at this point is not the sole fact that our hero was using steroids; the problem is that he would not give a clear statement weather he used them or not. When asked by a reporter if he ever used Steroids in his competition years he would answer: “We did a lot of experimenting at that time”. What kind of answer is that? As Steroids weren’t illegal at the time when he supposedly used them he couldn’t be prosecuted even if he admitted that. But instead of proving that he is a bodybuilder, doing something for bodybuilding, he deiced to rather be a politician and behave as one – be completely indecisive about any issue that concerns him.
Today steroids have an extremely bad reputation. They are equaled to hard drugs and when ordinary people hear that word they immediately think of “criminal!” or “drug addict”. The fact that Steroids in general are basically products of human body and completely different than drugs is not really important, nor it is known. In such times a person who owns a part of his success to Steroids and has the power to help improve the overall image should do so. I don’t expect the man to say anything like “Kids, use Steroids, they’re god for you….”. But he sure as hell could help de-criminalize their use and possession in small amounts.