Mick Hart, author of the Layman’s Guide to Steroids, said: “The danger is [that] 99 percent will use it irresponsibly — taking way too much or not knowing how to inject it. Dealers want you to take as much as they can sell you. Cycles of hormone use used to be around eight weeks long and then some time off — now people are taking them solidly for two to three years.”
Inexperienced syringe users can slash an artery and bleed to death, create blood clots, or hit a nerve and risk permanent paralysis. Long-term use can, Graham said, lead to carpal tunnel syndrome (the compression of nerves in the wrists, which causes incessant tingling), raised blood sugar levels (which can trigger Type 2 diabetes), heart failure and — in excessive doses — gigantism, the disproportionate growth of body parts.
Users also have no guarantee of what they are buying, drug seizure expert Allen Morgan said.
“I have had cases where dealers didn’t even know that they had been selling rubbish. From a law enforcement perspective, it is a gray area, as police are brought up on a culture of going after street drugs and they simply have no grasp of how the bodybuilding drugs market works,” he said.
Hart said that supplies could also be tainted: “They are finding trace elements of metals in phials being shipped in from all over the place, as any wannabe dealer with a metal drum in places like China and Russia is attempting to make them on the cheap. That can be lethal.”
However, for Harry and many others, the lure of the physique of their dreams is too strong to give up.
“I decided the results were worth any risk,” he said.
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