In Ireland, the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) has recently released information showing that more than 100,000 steroid tablets were seized last year in Ireland alone while calling these figures “unacceptably high” and recommending that major changes be made to cut down on the usage of illegal anabolic steroids in the nation.
According to the same report released by this organization, illegal anabolic steroids make up just about 1/6 of nearly 600,000 illegal medications, counterfeit prescriptions, and illicit substances seized by this organization in 2018. This would make illegal anabolic steroids the third most commonly seized substance by this Irish organization, following up only erectile dysfunction medication (legitimate and counterfeit) as well as prescription grade sedatives which retained its title for the most frequently smuggled in prescription drug in Ireland.
Ireland certainly isn’t alone in having to deal with the illegal anabolic steroid epidemic, but they are (per capita) getting hit some of the hardest – particularly when it comes to drug smuggling rings that are interested in distributing these illicit substances after importing them (quite frequently) from Asia.
The HPRA organization said that 10 prosecutions were conducted in 2018 alone for anabolic steroids, that 14 voluntary formal cautions were issued, and that both of these figures represented a significant uptick. Officials were also nervous that these are signs that things weren’t going to slow down for the importation of these anabolic steroids anytime soon, but that things are looking to continue to ramp up moving forward.
Leadership at this organization is understandably nervous about how these things could continue to evolve moving forward. In Ireland, purchasing prescription medications via mail order (including purchasing these medications online) remains 100% against the law and completely prohibited.
Still, Irish citizens continue to import these drugs at an almost breakneck pace and some are going as far as even setting up their own phony operations with a hint of legitimacy to distribute the anabolic steroids throughout the country.
Local and national police organizations concur with the feelings reported by this organization and are nervous and how the trend doesn’t seem to be reversing even after major public initiatives, including a major Zero Gains campaign just last year, aren’t having the kind of impact that they had hoped they would.
Instead, demand remains incredibly high for these illicit drugs and even looks to outpace the demand for last year. More and more people are looking to get their hands on illegal anabolic steroids than ever before in Ireland and a lot of people are beginning to abuse these drugs – with horrible consequences.
Emergency inpatient cases at hospitals around Ireland related specifically to steroid use have more than doubled up over the past half decade. Medical experts are nervous about what the trend may due to short and long-term health prospects for the citizens of Ireland for years to come, and those in the fitness community are rightfully nervous as well.
Fitness leaders have stated that an increasing the overall participation rates in sports throughout Ireland have led to all kinds of unscrupulous behavior, unregulated activities, and athletes looking to gain a competitive edge and advantage in a field of competition that is more crowded now than ever before.
It looks like men are turning to steroids more frequently than women (which follows the trend globally), but more and more women are finding themselves intrigued at the prospect of turning to anabolic steroids to shortcut the hard work that “clean” athletes put into get the same results.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Ireland deals with these issues moving forward.
Source: https://www.hpra.ie/homepage/controlled-substances/news-events?type=1
