The country has become a major hub for steroid production and distribution. It is often a stopover for drugs that are shipped worldwide to bodybuilders and other users who want to improve their physiques.
THERE’S something about the seedy Thai beachside town of Pattaya that keeps bringing amateur Australian bodybuilders back. It’s not the sun, sea or sex, but a booming subculture that uses anabolic steroids and growth hormones to get ripped. And because these drugs are strictly regulated in Australia by laws that are some of the strictest in the world, many have found a way around the law: they go to Thailand on “steroid holidays”.
Many pharmacies here boldly display a wide variety of steroids and other supplements in their shop-front windows. One on Beach Road Soi 7 advertises Andriol (methandienone) tablets and Testoviron (testosterone). One major seizure of these drugs in Serbia recently contained 420,000 pink, five-edged Anabol tablets, produced in Russia, Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary under a number of brand names.
And while steroids have their place in medically supervised cycles for specific health conditions, they can cause serious side effects in unsupervised use. The FDA warns that they can have a wide range of negative health impacts, from shrinkage of the testes in men to masculinisation in boys and girls, a increase in cholesterol and blood pressure, hair loss, kidney problems and a host of sexual disorders. The US agency also warns that some children can suffer from a condition called glue ear, in which fluid collects in the middle ear, leading to hearing impairment and behavioural difficulties. Steroids Thailand