Buying Steroids Is Easier Than Aspirin Baseball Players Are Major Customers

When the Dominicans' winter training camp begins, the drugstores on the streets of Santo Domingo start to get busy. The Esto drugstore 100 yards from the Santo Domingo Capital Stadium is always full of baseball players whose sole purpose is to buy steroids. A local pharmacy salesperson estimated that steroid sales in Santo Domingo were about double their usual volume when winter training camps began.

Buying steroids in Latin America is as easy as buying aspirin in the United States. These medicines are openly over the counter and can be purchased without any doctor's prescription. Most of the Latin American players use their trip home to buy a large stock of steroids, and the American players use the winter training camps in Latin America as a "purchasing opportunity". During the regular season, players often ask the coach for leave and go to Mexico for purchases together. An outfielder, who asked not to be named, said: "I often hear that several players take time off from the team at the same time, just to go to the border city of Mexico to buy various green pills and pods. Sometimes they go to buy in person, sometimes, They turn to their teammates."

Sports Illustrated reporters had easy access to steroids in Santo Domingo and TIJUANA, Mexico. They bought ANABOLEX, DECA-DURABOLIN, testosterone, and various other steroids. Most of the bottles of these anabolic steroids were labeled "For Cats, Dogs, and Horses", and they also issued "Not for Human Use". warn. TIJUANA is only 18 miles from San Diego, where there are more than 50 pharmacies densely packed on the main street. A salesman named Imeli, who expertly packs testosterone and testosterone, said that most of the people who come to buy these products are American weightlifters, bodyguards, college students, baseball players and other professional athletes.

Imeli will kindly remind every customer that shipping steroids is illegal in the United States. He threw away the steroid packages and repacked them into an unmarked vial, warning customers to be extra careful when driving across the border. It is no longer uncommon for U.S. customs agents to stop baseball players and find various pill bottles in their shorts. But the main role of customs is to check whether people are terrorists or whether they are carrying weapons. In drugs, they care more about heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, marijuana, and then steroids. Still, there were 8,724 incidents of illegal steroid possession last year, and customs agents confiscated steroids with a street value of $38 million, a 46 percent increase from the previous year.