In the quest for muscles, more young athletes are turning to dangerous steroids and other body-enhancing drugs which are easily available on the Internet. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, chair of the Senate Committee on International Narcotics Control, is holding a hearing on the subject of steroids today. The witness list includes coaches, athletes and law enforcement officials, but Grassley says -no- Iowans. Grassley says several Iowans were asked to testify at today’s hearing but “Some prominent Iowans turned us down because they don’t want to speak about what might be an embarrassment to our universities and colleges.” A federal study finds up to five-million Americans use steroids each year, including 175-thousand high school girls and 350-thousand high school boys. Grassley says steroid abuse is certainly going on in Iowa schools. While Grassley says he has no Iowa-specific statistics, it would be putting “our head in the sand” to think the widespread problem isn’t here. The hearing is to focus on the availability of illegal steroids and the pressures young athletes face to use steroids in an attempt to improve themselves.
