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by John Wicks
on June 22, 2022
As festival season is almost upon us, with Glastonbury starting this week alongside other summer entertainment such as Love Island on the TV - the use of Steroids to enhance the ‘body beautiful’ is certainly set to rise over the coming months – if it hasn’t already.
Tans, teeth and having a buff body is great but there is a darker side. It’s been described as a ‘emerging epidemic’ with people ready to ‘boost their tans’ by the Local Government Association – and although this data is now four years old – steroid use shows no signs of abating.
Steroids
It’s not always obvious when an individual is taking Steroids, even when there’s significant body and muscle growth. Besides bouts of paranoia or anger, known more commonly as ‘roid’ rage’ – what you may not see are other body changes such as hypertension, decreased libido or heart arrhythmias.
So can you cheat a Steroid drug test?
No. When a person consumes Steroids, the body breaks down the substances into metabolites. The drugs and metabolites circulate in the bloodstream and are then transferred into hair fibres on the scalp and elsewhere.
It’s common to see people, particularly men, with a buffed body and clean shaven all over as a ‘bodybuilder standard’. But having no body or head doesn’t mean you’ll get away with throwing a drug test. There are alternative samples we can take to ensure the drugs test goes ahead when there’s no head or body hair.
But what if there’s no hair on the head or anywhere?
Usually a hair sample similar to the width of a shoelace and is taken from the head or body. But if there’s no hair to be found anywhere on the donor (head or body) then our sample collections agents will clip a small sliver of nail from fingers and/or toes to test for steroid usage.
We’ve seen an increase at our lab
“28.7% of steroid users had also used psychoactive drugs in the previous four weeks.”
– Public Health Wales cohort study
Cansford Labs has seen an increase in queries, calls and emails about Steroids since the world has started to re-open after Covid-19. We anticipate this year, with the Summer of 2022 well and truly upon us, there will be a rise; not just in DV cases but also with steroid testing.
The two are inextricably linked but only time will tell us about what’s happening in Summer 2022 thanks to data and statistics ready for analysis later in the year.
Have you got any questions or need advice?
If you have any questions or you need advice on drug and alcohol testing- including Steroids – the our service is free because we're here to help. All you have to do is either email or call us on 029 2054 0567. We've also got live chat on our website here.