The Butler Did It: Steroids scare hits home hard, By: Dylan Butler
09/13/2007
Parents of high-school aged kids, I ask you this question: Would you let your children hang out at a bodega or a pool hall that is known to be a place where crack and heroin are sold?
No? Then why let your children go to the gym without a second thought?
Yes, the gym is a place where your children can stay fit, but it's also the main place where they may be able to purchase steroids and other illegal drugs.
And if you think that doesn't happen here in Queens, you are sadly mistaken.
The Queens district Attorney's announced a major drug sting at a pair of Queens gyms - Powerhouse on Francis Lewis Blvd., a few blocks from Holy Cross High School, and Envy Us on 20th Avenue in College Point.
A whopping 24 people were arrested in connection with the drug bust, including a female boxer and her bouncer husband, a reportedly aspiring porn actress from Bayside, an ex-cop and a Bayside-based barber.
Perhaps what should be most alarming for parents was the arrest of a 17-year-old from Bayside. He was charged with two counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance and faces up to nine years in jail if convicted.
Who do you think he was allegedly selling to, parents?
Those who were arrested are your neighbors, they live in Whitestone, Bayside, College Point, Fresh Meadows, Woodhaven and Flushing.
And it wasn't just steroids that prosecutors contend were being hawked at these two gyms. It was prescription drugs Oxycontin and Vicodin, as well as Ecstasy and cocaine, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told a news conference Friday.
When police raided the College Point home of one alleged supplier, they also seized a shotgun and a .357 Magnum.
Sadly, steroids are part of our world. If you thought it was just in other suburban areas, places like New Jersey and Long Island, you're wrong. Two dozen people arrested in two local gyms should be a major wake-up call.
"The more affluent the area," one local coach said, "the more you see it."
Don't just assume that your son or daughter is going to work out just to stay fit, just to lose weight. Ask questions, be instructive, look for signs of steroid use like acne on the back of arms, excessive aggressiveness, hair loss and odd smelling urine. Your children might hate you now, but it's better than having them do drugs.
Fingers will immediately point to the high-school athlete, especially football players because they are the biggest and the strongest. Players at Holy Cross and St. Francis Prep work out together, but not at Powerhouse or Envy Us. They're part of a regimen at Gridiron, Inc., a program run out of a Northern Boulevard studio and partially designed by a former Holy Cross player.
Are there high school athletes in Queens who take steroids? Yes. With the absence of a mandatory league-wide drug testing policy, it's up to individual programs to police the players. And with rosters of 50 or more players in the Catholic High School Football League, some players will inevitably slip through the cracks.
So your son isn't a football player, he's not an athlete. That doesn't mean he's not taking steroids. Heed the words of one local coach.
"It's all over, it's everywhere," the coach said. "It's not just Powerhouse Gym and it's not just athletes. There's kids who want 'the look.'"
Impressionable teenage boys want to have six-pack abs, drive the fastest car and wear the most expensive clothes. And if it means taking a pill or injecting a needle in their buttocks to achieve that goal quicker, then so be it. When you're 16 you think you're invincible anyway, so what's the harm in a little steroids? After all, the goal is to be the envy of your friends, and especially the opposite sex.
Sterility, testicular shrinkage, the possibility of contracting HIV or hepatitis by using a dirty needle? Nah, that won't happen to me, they say.
Parents, please learn from this shocking drug bust, please listen to the words of Queens DA Richard Brown.
"Many of the purchases were allegedly made inside the locker rooms," he said, "on the gym floor, in the trainer's office and near the front desk."
Make sure the drugs are not entering the hands of your child.
