Australian customs claims steroid seizures are up 300%

Demand for illegal performance-enhancing drugs is rocketing in Australia, with seizures of illegally imported steroids and human growth hormones more than trebling in the past three years. The Customs and Border Protection Service annual report revealed 8721 seizures of performance and image-enhancing drugs in 2011-12, up from 2696 in 2009-10. A Customs and Border Protection spokesman said easy access to the substances online was a growing concern. "Seizure statistics have increased in an environment where there is an increased demand for performance and image-enhancing type substances," he said. "The increase in seizures can be partly attributed to the easy access to these substances over the internet and their availability from many countries which do not have the same controls as Australia." Customs believes the ease of online purchasing was leading many users to mistakenly believe steroids were legal in Australia. "Customs and Border Protection has contacted a number of international sellers warning them of import restrictions on steroids in Australia," the spokesman said. A 28-year-old man was charged after a seizure at Perth Airport this month in which more than 2500 tablets and a number of vials of liquid, believed to be steroids, were found in his luggage. The rise in demand comes amid a growing global controversy over drug cheating, with Lance Armstrong stripped of his seven Tour de France wins and banned for life from competitive cycling for blood doping. Murdoch University sports scientist Jeremiah Peiffer said there was little tolerance of drug cheats. "You look at all these performance enhancing drugs - whether it be steroids, growth hormones or EPO (erythropoietin) use and blood transfusions - it's important to recognise that it's a small sub-group," Dr Peiffer said. "What you're probably seeing is a small group of people who are trying to make the top end of something - they think they're missing something and drugs are the way to go."