When professional athletes are exposed for “performance-enhancing drugs,” it?s a matter for national head-shaking. But what happens when police officers with the power over life and death get caught turning to steroids?
More than two dozen Phoenix, Ariz., police and firefighters were linked to a Drug Enforcement Administration steroid investigation this summer, leading the department to initiate mandatory steroid testing.
People with aggressive tendencies can get more aggressive on steroids, said Dr. Lew Lyon, psychologist with Medstar Sports Health and Union Memorial Sports Medicine, though there is no “cause and effect” relationship between using steroids and the so-called ?roid rage.
“Most public safety officials have more aggressive personalities to begin with ? you have to be assertive and take charge of a situation,” Lyon said. “Then you?re talking about a medication that could possibly enhance that tendency.”
However, reports of individuals taking anabolic steroids going berserk are largely anecdotal, he said. “You?re not going to turn into this monster taking it.”
The drugs are controlled substances,however, and most local police departments do random drug testing for a variety of illegal drugs.
Officer Troy Harris, spokesman for the Baltimore City Police Department, said no officers have been found in violation of the steroid policy in recent memory.
“Everyone is tested periodically for all types of illegal substances,” Harris said, including specifically anabolic steroids. “If [they fail a drug test] trying to get into the department, they?re denied entry, and if they?re already an officer and they test positive, they go before a review board.”
Like other local law enforcement agencies in the region, penalties for illegal drug use can include termination.
Maryland State Police referred just a handful of officers for steroid testing in the last four years, spokesman First Sgt. Russell Newell, MSP said. “It?s a very small number of cases we ever see.”
State police test for seven illegal drugs, not including steroids, at random, Newell said. “What occurs is if there?s a reasonable suspicion by a supervisor, they?re referred to the department?s medical section for steroid testing.
“Because it is a controlled substance, in the academy everybody is warned, ?You will be tested at various times in your career.? ”
