Steroids are widely used by actors whose jobs rely on a certain physique, and they can be trivially easy to obtain. The problem with steroids is that they interfere with your body’s natural hormone balance, and if they are misused can cause long-lasting, irreversible side effects. For men, these include a decrease in sperm count and the possibility of sterility. In addition, for women, the use of steroids can cause serious problems with your menstrual cycle, enlargement of the clitoris and, in some cases, a deepening of your voice and an increase in cholesterol that could lead to heart disease.

As a country with a growing pharmaceutical industry, Thailand has become entangled in the global steroid trade. Despite strict domestic drug regulations, the country plays a crucial role in the distribution of anabolic steroids worldwide, with illicitly produced and imported products often finding their way into the hands of athletes, bodybuilders and other sports enthusiasts.

In this article, we look at how Thailand is fuelling a global black market for performance-enhancing drugs and the dangers that it poses to users. Using anecdotal evidence, we highlight the stories of Australian amateur bodybuilders who are travelling to Thailand on so-called “steroid vacations”, buying steroids and other drugs that are illegal to possess in Australia.

A recent incident at Sydney airport highlighted the scale of the issue, with a 65-year-old man’s luggage searched for a range of steroids that had been posted to him from Thailand. According to the Australian Crime Commission (ACC), 5561 border detections of “performance and image-enhancing substances” were made last year, with many of them coming from overseas countries like Thailand, where laws on such medicines are more relaxed. Steroids Thailand