Thread: Bodybuilder gives insight into Thailand steroid holidays, doctors warn of health risk

Bodybuilder gives insight into Thailand steroid holidays, doctors warn of health risks
Matt Wordsworth


Jarrad Fisher says Thailand provides an abundance of performance-enhancing drugs - all of them legal and available over the counter.
(ABC News)

An amateur bodybuilder has given an alarming insight into so-called steroid vacations, where eager athletes head to Thailand to buy supplements that are illegal in Australia.

All manner of performance-enhancing substances are legal in the country, and sell for a fraction of the cost of their black market equivalents in Australia.

The vacations are also fuelling a lively black market, and creating serious legal and health risks for those who partake.

Jarrad Fisher, 21, weighed just 70 kilograms as a teenager, but naturally bulked up through a diet, exercise and natural supplement regime.

To push his body to a new level, the Brisbane resident began looking to substances that would be illegal in this country.

"I came across steroid vacations," he told 7.30.

"I always knew Thailand was a place to go to get real cheap steroids and to train at good gyms.

"But it's a new thing these days that bodybuilders are going over just simply to live there for short periods just to completely utilise all the supplementation, the gyms and the steroids."

Bodybuilders are going over just simply to live there for short periods just to completely utilise all the supplementation, the gyms and the steroids.

Jarrad Fisher

What he found in Thailand was an abundance of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids and human growth hormone - all of them legal and available over the counter.

"Probably about 90 per cent of the chemists you walk into just have it," Mr Fisher said.

"You walk in, ask them, they bring out a big book like big list of things, pictures and stuff, different brands of different things.

"Just page after page, and you go through it all have a look what you want and just ask them, they've got it on hand there usually. If they don't have it they'll tell you to come back and within 24 hours they have it brought in by somebody."

He says the drugs are available at very cheap prices.

"Honestly I probably didn't pay more than $20 for a vial. Over here you pay anywhere between $250, $350 a vial depending on what you're getting," he said.

Steroid use carries great health risks, such as permanent liver damage and cancer.

Dr Michael Jamieson, the president of the Australian College of Sports Physicians, says vacations to take the risks of steroid use to another level.

"There is no regulation or no control about how that person receives that medication or receives that drug, or how it's administered and how it's monitored," he said.

"It is a concern to myself, it's a concern to my college and it's a concern to the government."

Steroid seizures and arrests at record levels

Paul Jevtovic, the executive director of the Australian Crime Commission, says its latest Illicit Drugs Report found a 57 per cent increase in the number of border seizures of drugs like steroids and human growth hormone in one year.

That includes 6,126 steroid detections, the highest in a decade.

"These are the highest recorded detection and seizure levels for performance and image enhancing drugs by customs at out border," he said.

"So you see quite an alarming trend around the number of performance and image enhancing drugs being seized."

In Queensland, which accounts for 58 per cent of steroid arrests, syringe exchange programs say they are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of clients using steroids.

Most of the time the drugs are not even physically purchased overseas.

Ninety per cent of the detections made by Customs happen in mail centres, with people smuggling the drugs through the parcel post system.

Key ACC findings on steroid use

• Number of performance enhancing drugs detected at border up 56.9 per cent in 2011-12.
• That includes 6,126 steroid detections, the highest in a decade.
• Queensland accounts for 58 per cent of steroid arrests.
• National steroid seizures and arrests increased and are the highest on record.

Read the report here.

There is a thriving online market in steroids and other performance enhancing substances that fuels the black market in Australia.

One site boasts of being able to get around Australia's tough laws.

But the risk for the buyer is considerable. Importing steroids into Australia carries a maximum fine of $170,000 and a jail term of up to five years.

"We have seen a growing availability of performance and image-enhancing drugs and hormones available on the internet and of course this is one of the unfortunate by-products of technology," Mr Jevtovic said.

Earlier this year Mr Fisher became one of those border detection statistics.

When he returned from Thailand to Brisbane in February, he made a critical mistake by not checking his bags.

"I forgot that I had a couple of vials in there and I had some stuff left over that I didn't use when I was over there and when I was in a rush coming into the airport from Thailand I completely forgot about everything," he said.

Customs seized the vials of testosterone and he was charged with possession.

Fortunately for him, the magistrate accepted his absent-mindedness and he was given a good behaviour bond and had no conviction recorded.

Mr Fisher is not put off going to Thailand and is determined to pursue his dream of becoming a professional bodybuilder.

"I'll be going there for the rest of my life," he said.

"It's not even just going there to use the substances and training and that, as much as I love that. It's also just a really good place to go for a holiday.

"You know, good sights, good shopping, everything's great there, on top of obviously the pleasures of a bodybuilder."

xxx.xxx.xx

Over 20 years ago I flew home and sat next to a guy like this. He had them shipped home and believe it or not said he was carrying all sorts of steroids. But he did not come and train here, just came to buy. Nice enough guy as they were not injecting them back them, and all the secret shit hadnt been invented.

Pretty open about it here. Shoot up right in the gym in front of everyone.

Originally Posted by Mid

Thailand provides an abundance of performance-enhancing drugs - all of them legal and available over the counter

Originally Posted by Mid

"There is no regulation or no control about how that person receives that medication or receives that drug, or how it's administered and how it's monitored," he said.

In Thailand, anabolic agents are in class S, "Specially Controlled Drug (ยาควบคุมพิเศษ). A first grade pharmacist shall be on duty at the premises selling modern drugs. Sale to public is on prescription only. Daily purchase and sale record required."

This means that a pharmacy is allowed to sell anabolic agents only on prescription and the pharmacy must keep a written record of every purchase and sale, for inspection by FDA officers at any time without prior notice.

The law governing the sale of medicines is the Medicines Act B.E. 2510, with several amendments (unless a new Medicines Act has been promulgated recently), and there are numerous Ministerial Regulations based on that law giving details on the implementation of the law.

^

so he should have said .. there is no enforcement ..........

Originally Posted by Mid

so he should have said .. there is no enforcement .........

It's quite reckless of the news agency to publish what they did, considering it is far from correct.

body builders must have a disease with mental similarities to aneorexia

Thailand hotspot for young Aussies to take “steroid” holidays
Kathleen Skene
March 08, 2014


Former Gold Coaster Tim “Sharky” Ward who lives in Thailand now. Image taken from “The Official Tim Sharky website”.
Source: Supplied

CHEAP steroids and hormone supplements are adding to the attraction of Thailand as a destination for young Australians hoping to boost their bulk and self- image.

While young women are increasingly headed to South-East Asia for cut-price boob jobs, their male counterparts are taking “steroid vacations” to take advantage of prescription-free access to human growth hormone and anabolic steroids.

Dr Richard Kidd, Queensland chairman of the Australian Medical Association Council of General Practice, said young people, often male bodybuilders, turned to anabolic steroids to make themselves stronger and bigger.

“There are people who are going to places like Thailand and having these steroid [at]vacations,” he said.

“They can get (steroids) quite easily in places like Thailand, but the reason they are illegal in Australia is that they really are dangerous.


“People who are using these things, particularly in another country, have no way to determine if the stuff they’re putting in them is what they think it is.”

A Bulletin investigation last week revealed the growing demand for steroids, particularly among the young male demographic.

The Australian Crime Commission 2011-12 Illicit Drug Data report showed that the steroid market had exploded with record numbers of [at]seizures, detections and arrests.

Arrests nationwide spiked 213 per cent between 2007 and 2012.

The Bulletin report also revealed backyard cooks importing powdered drugs from Asia to mix with benzyl [at]alcohol, and medical experts warning schoolchildren are playing “Russian roulette with multiple bullets”.

In the Thai city of Pattaya, even former Gold Coast loan shark Tim Ward has warned young men against taking the drugs — despite admitting he took Human Growth Hormone himself.

“Guys don’t know what they’re buying. This is a huge industry and Thailand is well known for making a quick buck on a copy and low quality goods,” Mr Ward told the Bangkok Post.

According to the Australia Crime Commission, the price in Australia for a single 10 millilitre vial of testosterone was up to $230.

In Thailand it’s about $51.

Dr Kidd said side effects of steroid and hormone abuse could include liver and kidney cancer or failure, shrunk testicles and psychological problems for men, and facial hair and baldness for women.

“What price are you willing to pay in terms of your looks and health?” he said.

couriermail.com.au

as flies are attracted to shit, so with its lack of regulation, uncontrolled avarice and an largely amoral population it is no wonder that thailand attracts morons and criminals from all over the world.

Originally Posted by aging one

....they were not injecting them back them, and all the secret shit hadnt been invented.

Injecting takes pressure off of the liver.

If they were not injecting, then they may be dead already from liver failure / cancer.

Vanity.

I didn't know, but am not surprised to know you can get steroids over the counter in Thailand.

Steroids are one of the worst things you can do to your body. I know two relatives that were into body building and took steroids in the 1980's and have side effects to this day. One of them has chronic pain in his back everyday and can barely live a normal life.

Sad sad that Thailand sells this stuff over the counter.

I've been doing steroids for years.

I don't have a muscle bound body.

For me, they just don't seem to work.




My skins lovely though.

Good to see that Tim Sharky's muscles haven't yet exploded in an orgy of testosterone and self-importance.

Originally Posted by withnallstoke

I've been doing steroids for years.

I don't have a muscle bound body.

For me, they just don't seem to work.




My skins lovely though.

thats pile shrinking cream !

Originally Posted by taxexile

thats pile shrinking cream !

That explains the horrible taste.

Originally Posted by withnallstoke

That explains the horrible taste.

More likely the local Ma and Pa shop's cuisine mixed with copious amounts of Lao Kao.