eft for college-still 5'4"-that he found vials of anabolic steroids underneath his mattress" ("Education Reduces Teen Steroid Use"). Furthermore, steroid users of any age can get blood clots and high blood pressure, which can cause heart attack and stroke ("Teens and Steroids").
Despite the overwhelming risks of taking steroids, "Steroid use among high school students tripled from 1993 to 2003" (Califano 55). Further, "An estimated 1 million Americans, half of them adolescents, use black-market steroids. Countless others are choosing from among more than 100 other substances, legal and illegal, touted as physique boosters and performance enhancers" (Dowshen). An article in the Healthy Weight Journal reports efforts on the part of the National Institute on Drug Abuse to prevent teen steroid abuse, yet 1999 monitoring of students found that "2.7 percent of 8th and 10th graders and 2.9 percent of 12th graders said they had taken anabolic steroids at least once in their lives" ("Teen steroid abuse rises" 50). Surveys show that teens admire and imitate their role models, and many of these are professional athletes who take steroids, such as Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire (Califano 54-
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