IRVINE : Panel Focuses on Dangers of Steroids

A field of five experts and more than 500 Irvine parents, students and teachers met Tuesday to discuss the dangers of anabolic steroids.

The meeting was the first of what the Irvine Unified School District hopes will be a continuing series of forums and lectures designed to make students aware of the dangers of steroids.

“It’s still pretty much a closet drug, and not a lot of people talk about it,” former Los Angels Ram Russ Bolinger told the audience. “It’s hard for your teachers or parents or coaches to deal with it, because it’s hard to pin down.”

Margie Wakeham, Irvine school board president and moderator of the event, said: “This is something that we want to take preventive measures at. People will ask why Irvine would hold something like this, considering we don’t have a problem now. We look to the future, and don’t want to wake up and find this problem even bigger.”

Anabolic steroids--synthetic hormones sold as pills or injectable liquids to add muscle mass--have been a topic that school districts have traditionally shied away from because the steroids are difficult to detect, according to Wakeham. Though no official statistics have been kept on the number of high school steroid users, Wakeham puts Irvine close to the national average of 1 in 20.

Panelists included ex-Rams Bolinger and Phil Olson, USC Athletic Director Marvin Cobb and Dr. Allan H. Beyer, chairman of the Orange County Medical Assn.’s Committee on Sports Medicine.