Regardless of the confusing post starting this thread, the real problem with John Romano’s comments on a segment of HBO’s Real Sports regarding the steroid issue in BB is that few, if any, BBers take steroids “under medical supervision” (are you fu’kin' kidding!??).
Sure, in theory, if one juiced (uhhh…but, what about all of the other doping in the BBers stack…amphetamines, diuretics, thyroid, insulin, GH, etc.?) under strict medical supervision with close monitoring of blood chemistry profiles, blood pressure, heart rate, and other key health parameters, then theoretically what John Romano said is apparently true.
But, having been BB for over 5 decades and observing the scene over that time I know for a fact (and surely you do as well) that practically every BBer/Olympic weightlifter/Powerlifter I know/knew personally, or observed, or heard about, NEVER juiced (or took other BB drugs) under ANY medical supervision, whatsoever! Rather, they either developed their own drug regimen, followed the advice in some book on the subject, or the advice of the local gym’s drug “guru/pusher”, or the advice of some friend or gym BBer they admired, etc.
Now, I am defining a BBer as anyone who weight-trains to improve their physical appearance and strength. What is so crazy/stupid/ignorant about the typical juiced BBer is that he/she is only a recreational BBer who is so impatient to “get huge/ripped/muscular” that he/she indiscriminately mixes all sorts of arguably dangerous drugs over long periods of time without any medical knowledge, or medical monitoring, of their harmful combinations and side effects. Also, the source/quality/safety of these drugs (many illegal) is highly questionable! Talk about not playing with a full deck!! But then, you only have to look at the moronic, immature, nature of many of the posts on this forum to realize that there many participants in BB who are clearly not playing with a full deck!
We all know that the most closely guarded secret in both competitive amateur and pro. BB/fitness/figure competition is preventing the revelation of what drug stacks these competitors are on. Also, the nature/method of the competition testing for these BB drugs is a ridiculous joke (if at all!) when compared to the highly sophisticated and frequent random testing carried out by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), which closely monitors Olympic weightlifters, worldwide, for doping, with severe penalties for testing positive.
Of course, if there were a full disclosure of medical histories, health problems, and deaths, of BB drug/doping users and whether these users actually took these BB drugs under medical supervision, maybe then we could begin to uncover the iceberg which has been for nearly 5 decades “bodybuilding’s dirty little secret”!