Is Illegal Steroid Use by Cops a Common Problem in the USA?

Most people recoil at the idea of cops visiting illegal drug dealers of any kind. We want our police officers to have the physical strength and good judgment to do their jobs safely, but we don't want police to "lose it" in a physical confrontation. The two hundred forty-eight cops in New Jersey and New York who were found to have used illegal steroids at one doctor's office were a very small number compared to the 40,000 sworn officers in New York City alone.

How do the numbers compare?

• About one in one five hundred law enforcement officers in New York or New Jersey got illegal steroids from Dr. Calao.
• About one in fifty high school athletes uses illegal steroid drugs.
• About one in one thousand adults in the population at large uses illegal steroids in any given year, and about one in fifty has at any time during life.

Given that about one in one thousand adults uses illegal steroids in any given year, however, the rate of steroid abuse in this one case was several times greater than in the population at large, but nothing approaching the rate of illegal steroid use among teenage athletes. Still, it's reasonable to expect zero tolerance for illegal drug use among the people the public trusts to police illegal drug use.

What do police need to do to police themselves? Here is where the public can help:

1. When you have an opportunity to comment on random testing for marijuana and cocaine, which is common in police departments, ask about random testing for steroids.
2. When you have an opportunity to support a law enforcement officer who is pursuing an athletic goal without using steroids, give 'em all you can.
3. And, most importantly, don't be a law breaker yourself. If you have teenagers, make sure they know about the risks of illegal steroid use—especially how excesses of testosterone get converted into estrogen! If you are involved in athletic competition, do it the hard way, without hormone help. And when you have an opportunity to support your police department in any way, give them a hand. You never know when your act of public support is exactly what your city needs to keep your department clean.