Paris is making an example of steroid using bodybuilders.

Federal prosecutors in Paris criminal court are handing down judgement of several bodybuilders suspected in involvement in trafficking of serious and growth hormones. Media commented that the court set out to make an example of these bodybuilders in order to halt what they see to be an alarming growth in use of anabolic products by amateur gym-goers in the French capitol.

Eric C., age 47, was sentenced to five years in prison for being a chemist. He told the court that he had traveled to the United States in the 80s, with hopes of a film career:

“I thought why not me? We all dreamed of seeing these people on TV. For us, the west coast of the United States, California, is what we call the mecca of bodybuilding.”

Yet Eric’s acting career failed, and in the US he was prosecuted for possession of methamphetamines. Returning to France, he set up a laboratory from which he synthesized his anabolic products.

Patrice managed a supplement store attached to a gym. His business gradually became a steroid storage service for the bodybuilders and he confessed to taking growth hormone in court, being sentenced to two years in prison. Mehdi D., put on more than fifteen kilos of muscles in just “three or four months of diet,” and was sentenced to three years in prison. Finally, a trainer by the pseudonym “Andy,” suspected of having been the head of the distribution network, is sentenced to a severe five years in prison.

This event is merely the latest in a series of prosecutions that have spread across Europe. The trend of aggressively prosecuting steroids began in the USA with the Anabolic Control Act of 2014. It has been further accelerated by the finding of Russian Olympic doping scandal, and is affecting primarily the bodybuilding community worldwide.

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