Anabolic Steroids Can Change a Person

Dear School Board, As the new high school in Indiana, there are a couple of issues to discuss to maintain a healthy and successful environment for our students to excel in their education. It has come to our attention that anabolic steroids are becoming an issue among students, yet there are not many policies in place for this type of abuse. If by any chance the words Gear, Juice, Roids, and Stackers are used please stay alert as they are common names for anabolic steroids. I am writing to the school board to inform about how deadly the use of anabolic steroids can be and how we should work to eradicate it from our schools. Medical prescriptions for anabolic steroids are emplaced for patients who need help to gain weight after a severe illness or injury. It can also be used for certain types of breast cancer in women, anemia, and hereditary angioedema. Although, anabolic steroids can be prescribed, when they are abused the dosage is about 10 to 100 times higher. Anabolic steroids may be misinterpreted as a positive life changing drug in the eyes of high schoolers as it can take away pain and improve performance and appearance physically. When athletes are inflicted with the idea of needing to always take home first place then they may resort to things such as steroids to better their chances in achieving the goals placed on them. In the same way if students are placed with exorbitant amount of pressure it can be an outlet to relieve pain. There are different ways that people can abuse anabolic steroids such as taking them orally, through a needle, or applied to the skin as a cream. The use of anabolic steroids raises many harmful effects since it is adding extra male sex hormones, testosterone, into the body. Steroids are different from other types of drug abuse as they do not increase the chemical dopamine in the brain that creates the high making it addictive. Although, a long term use of steroids can disrupt the pathways in the brain, for dopamine, serotonin, and opioids. In the short run it can cause paranoia, jealousy, irritability, delusions, and impaired judgment which are all mental problems. If it is habitually used then long term effects like kidney problems, liver failure, and heart problems can arise. It can lead to a high blood pressure and put students at a higher risk of stroke or heart attack. All of these effects can derail students from focusing on what matters in these important four years of their lives. Another issue also arises since this drug can be injected into the muscles using a needle. If needles are being shared and not cleaned properly that can cause students to transmit HIV/AIDS. After gathering all this information on how anabolic steroids can change a person completely there should be policies in place to avoid them. Since it is a drug that can enhance performance level all sports players should be required to take a urine test before making their respective teams. Effects of anabolic steroids should be something everyone is required to learn about; it will educate the students on how harmful this substance abuse can be. Even though there are rules being set in place to avoid this abuse, if a student breaks any of the rules there will be consequences. The student will be immediately taken out of their sport and given detention. All steroids will be confiscated from the student and parents will be alerted. If the substance abuse is very severe it can even lead to suspension or expulsion from our school. I would hope to see these policies be put in place as soon as possible since it is a major topic that this district takes very seriously.

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