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Welcome to the Adventurers guild. This is what we like to call the trading post. This is the place where Adventurers and guests can gather for general chat and for trading ideas, motivation, music, and stories of your adventures. If you're new to the Adventurers or here as a guest, welcome to our guild and please introduce yourself. The guild leaders are myself, @Sylvaa, and @Teros, so please feel free to message one of us if you have questions about the guild and the forum.

Welcome to the Adventurers guild. This is what we like to call the trading post. This is the place where Adventurers and guests can gather for general chat and for trading ideas, motivation, music, and stories of your adventures. If you're new to the Adventurers or here as a guest, welcome to our guild and please introduce yourself. The guild leaders are myself, @Sylvaa, and @Teros so please feel free to message one of us if you have questions about the guild and the forum.

Alright, so I noticed that there wasn't really a true steroids discussion thread. Whether this is by design or by chance, I do not know, but let me make a few things very clear before I go on: This is not a "post your stacks here, bros"-type thread.This is not a place to post purchase or sale offers or places to buy PEDs of any kind.This is not a place to express your everlasting love or absolute hatred of steroids and those who do or do not use them.This is a thread for logical discussion on the morality and safety of steroid use, both in and outside of sports.Now, since that has been made clear, the mods can feel free to remove this thread if it breaks any rules. I couldn't find any that address this issue, so I will carry on. Just, please, don't ban me; I like Nerd Fitness. So, here are a few questions to guide you in your response (with an implied "why or why not?") : What is your overall knowledge concerning steroids? If you want to shorten your response to this, use a scale of 1-10, with 1 being "what are steroids?" and 10 being a Ph.D. in Endocrinology and personal use for multiple years. Do you think non-medical steroids should be legal? For whom should it be legal? What types of regulation should we have (high taxes, prescription only, free steroids for every man, woman, and child)? In your eyes, what are the possible dangers of steroid use, both long term and short term? For what group of people would it be most dangerous? What are the possible benefits of steroid use? Whom do you think would benefit most from the legalization of recreational use? Do you think steroid use in professional sports is cheating? In collegiate sports? In amateur and high school sports? Recreational use by "Gym-rats," going only for teh gainz? Do you support it even if you consider it to be cheating? Would you ever consider using them yourself if they were legal? If they were still illegal?A few footnotes before I express my opinions: Any time the word "steroid" appears, it refers specifically to artificial anabolic hormones, not corticosteroids or PEDs in general.All references to legality assume US residency. If you live elsewhere, please preface your response with a synopsis of your country's laws.If you want any other questions available for general discussion, include them and your responses to them, and I'll probably include them in the original post.Now for my opinions: This whole thread started because I watched Bigger, Stronger, Faster*, and because I thirst for knowledge, I decided to research the subject for a while. That said, I am far from an Endocrinology Ph.D., and I've never used. I'd give myself a 4 or 5. I do think they should be legal for recreational use. Not only could they provide tax income for our woefully underfunded country, they could be regulated in a way that they can't be now. It's essentially the same argument people use for the legalization of weed. Regulation would be high taxes and a limit on the quantities allowed to be purchased by a single person in a given amount of time. Users would also need to register as such. The dangers are really unknown. One of the unfortunate side-effects of their illegality is that we aren't able to do studies on them; we have to rely on anecdotal evidence from the users themselves. We do know that the dangers have been exaggerated by the media, but that doesn't mean that they are safe. Right now, it hasn't been proven either way. That said, I don't think a decision to do steroids should be based on a lack of evidence that they are unsafe. But, like anything, there are safer ways to do steroids, and there are very unsafe ways to do them. They are prescribed by the medical community for certain conditions, so there is at least one way to do them safely. Determining whether they can be done safely without a medical condition requires research that we currently cannot do. However, much can be said for moderation. They would probably be most dangerous for those under 25 years old. Before then, the body is still developing, and during this development, it is better to be safe than sorry when talking about hormones. There are some obvious benefits: strength and size increases, reduced recovery time after working out, and various psychological boosts. However, the greatest beneficiaries of legalization are less obvious. Because we are talking about legalizing recreational use, I can't include those who have medical conditions; they can already get steroids as a prescription. I suppose the greatest beneficiaries would be older folks who no longer produce enough hormones, but don't have a diagnosable condition and therefore can't get a prescription. Perhaps the only real beneficiary would be Big Pharma. If cheating means "anything that is against the rules," then it's cheating if the sport's league prohibits it. However, if cheating is defined as "anything that gives an unfair advantage," it gets more complicated. If the majority of the players use steroids, then they are no longer an advantage. We all know that testing clean is not the same as being clean. Athletes can get around tests pretty easily. One obvious user who has always tested clean is Usain Bolt. He has broken records that were set by users who did not test clean. In other words, the best sprinters could take steroids and still lose to Bolt. This isn't really an attack on him; he is a genetic marvel, but so are the people who are using steroids and losing to him. TLDR: Steroids are only cheating if they give an unfair advantage. In some sports, you must use steroids to have any chance in competition. In these sports, not doing steroids is an unconquerable disadvantage. Therefore, I can't say steroid use in pro sports is really cheating. End TLDR. However, the line blurs further for collegiate athletes. Because college athletes have the best chance of being drafted into pro sports, they too must sometimes use steroids in order to be considered for pro sports. This is a really tough one for me. The possibility of a multi-million dollar contract makes it seem like pro sports, but because steroid users make up a smaller percentage of college athletes, I would call steroids an unfair advantage, and therefore cheating. For high school, I object for age reasons first, then because I consider it cheating. Nevertheless, steroid use in high school sports is definitely cheating. I won't consider steroids for a long time. I estimate that I have about ten years before I reach my genetic potential. I'm also not on track to be a pro athlete, and I'm not really competing against anyone but myself. Regardless of legality, I won't use steroids for a long time, probably ever. That being said, I won't judge those who have reached their genetic potential or are in pro sports and then choose to use steroids.Alright guys, keep it clean. I realize that my views may be too lenient for many of you, and I understand that. I encourage you all to reply to all the questions yourself before debating anyone else. Make sure that people know where you are coming from before you debate them on their views. Also, I may edit this post if I feel that I did not make something clear. I'll make it clear where I did this and why.