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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
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2 7 - 0 9 - 2 0 0 7 Steroids being sold on MySpace, U.S. officials charge
By Thomas Kaplan Published
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut: Steroids have long been sold in gyms and locker rooms, through the mail and at weight-lifting competitions. Now, the authorities here say teenagers can purchase them by browsing their favorite social-networking Web site.
Among the more than 120 arrests announced Monday in what the authorities called the largest steroids crackdown in U.S. history, five men charged in a Connecticut sting stood out not for what they were peddling, but for where they were suspected of doing it: on MySpace.com.
For teenagers who flock to the Web site to watch videos and connect with friends, ordering anabolic steroids took no more than a few extra mouse clicks, the authorities said.
And with the Web site's popularity among young people, some coaches in this area described the case as an unpleasant reminder about how easily minors can surreptitiously obtain performance-enhancing drugs.
In an indictment unsealed Friday, four men - three from Arizona and one from Pennsylvania - are accused of purchasing raw steroid powder from China, manufacturing the drugs in home-based laboratories and selling the finished products through a MySpace profile and an online store they created. [a href=http://www.anabolic-superstore.com/>www.anabolic-superstore.com]
The investigation also netted a Florida man who advertised and distributed steroids through his MySpace page. He pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Hartford, said Kevin O'Connor, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut.
"Of particular concern to us is obviously the use of profiles on MySpace.com, which gives us concern that this might in fact be a way to market to minors and to children," O'Connor said at a news conference. "Some of the methods that we've uncovered in this investigation lead us to conclude that it may not just be adults that are being marketed to."
MySpace users could initiate a purchase by sending a message through a seller's profile, O'Connor said.
Beyond what the authorities disclosed, a cursory search on the site this week revealed a profile of a 27-year-old woman from Tempe, Arizona, that linked to an online pharmacy that sells "only genuine" steroids.
"If you're looking for anabolic supplements," the woman wrote in a post on her profile, "you are in the right place."
Another profile, of a steroid-proffering online pharmacy, listed a 16-year-old high school student among its "friends."
MySpace and other networking sites are already under pressure from state attorneys general, including Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, to increase their efforts to protect minors from sexual predators.
"Our focus as attorneys general has been on pornography and predators, but marketing illegal drugs is equally troubling and certainly shows the need for stronger controls and verification of age and identity," Blumenthal said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
Those measures would render the Web sites useless for anyone seeking to sell contraband, Blumenthal said.
"To put it very bluntly, if a seller of steroids knows that his identity will be checked and his age verified, he is much less likely to use a social-networking site," he said.
Representatives of MySpace, owned by News Corp., did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this article.
The authorities in Connecticut said they planned to seek out those who bought steroids from the men who were charged - especially if they were coaches, teachers or students.
"If they're minors, we want to give them a wake-up call, let their parents know what their kids are doing," O'Connor said. "Certainly it wouldn't be surprising, I don't think, if kids are using steroids, based on what we know today."
That is what worries some coaches in this area.
"Absolutely it's a concern," said Craig Semple, athletic director at Daniel Hand High School in Madison, where six students were arrested and charged with possessing steroids in 2005.
Tom Brockett, head coach of the top-ranked football team at Ansonia High School, said he was concerned about the freedom young people have with computers. "The problem is, kids can get anything online, any day, anything they need," he said.
The four men indicted face up to 15 years in prison and a $750,000 fine if convicted on the steroids charges.
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