It seems that steroid users have gone wild in England according to news media reports. Bodybuilders with so-called “roid rage” have been terrorizing the unsuspecting citizens of the country. They’ve been mowing down people on sidewalks with cars. They’ve been biting people. They’ve been scaring kids with Halloween masks. They’ve even been throwing puppies!
This obviously sounds like fake news but it is really happening. Bodybuilders on steroids have actually done these things. However, steroids are unfairly blamed. Steroids almost certainly had nothing to do with any of these bizarre actions. The cocaine and alcohol were the real culprits that the news media conveniently chooses to de-emphasize. Yet, steroids are demonized and scapegoated. Steroids become the evil boogeyman of the story.
Let’s take a look at these so-called roid rage bodybuilders causing trouble.
Twenty-two year old Stephen Bolton went to a bar, started drink, got drunk and proceeded to have an argument with another patron over a pool game. Bolton starting biting the man all over his body – on his chest, on his arm and on his neck. Bolton then left the bar, found his girlfriend, started an argument and start biting her – on the hand and on the temples.
But Bolton was not done. When passing motorists stopped to help his girlfriend, he punched one of them and fled the scene when others approached. He ran to his car and drove after his girlfriend which he thought was headed toward her aunt’s house. His girlfriend wasn’t there yet but he found her cousin. Bolton threw a puppy dog and when the cousin protested, he punched her in the face.
Getting back in his car, Bolton drove around and found his girlfriend walking on the sidewalk. He proceeded to drive his car onto the curb and rammed her with the vehicle. The girlfriend suffered multiple injuries with the most serious being a broken leg that required surgery to insert metal pins.
What was Bolton’s explanation for the attacks? According to his defense attorney, it was his use of steroids. Attorney Laurie Scott didn’t think the fact that he got drunk was to blame. Scott explained that her client didn’t know that alcohol and steroids didn’t mix.
“He was using steroids at the gym – a young man with an element of vanity involved. He had a drink that night and realizes drink and steroids don’t mix,” Scott said.
In another case, 32-year old Jamie Martin was drunk and high on cocaine one early morning when he put on a Dracula Halloween mask and decided to go to an elementary school (Somerville Primmary School) at around 9:00 am in the morning. Martin brandished two kitchen knives and was running around “shouting and screaming”.
Of course, Martin’s actions terrified the people outside the elementary school who promptly called the local police. An armed police squad responded to call and locked down the school to protect staff and pupils. Martin was arrested without anyone getting hurt.
Defense attorney Anna Duke didn’t blame his behavior on alcohol or cocaine alone. Instead, she theorized that his unusual behavior was best explained by “the fact that he had mixed alcohol with cocaine”. Judge Patrick Thompson agreed.
“He accepts that he takes steroids,” Judge Thompson said. “I don’t suppose they mix particularly well with alcohol at 9:00 am.”
Of course, the most obvious explanation of these behaviors is the use of mind-altering and psychoactive drugs like alcohol and cocaine. The use of these drugs alone are sufficient explanation for such behavior. It doesn’t require mixing them with steroids. There are untold stories of drunk people doing stupid things and getting into bar fights not to mention unpredictably bizarre actions of people on cocaine binges. But people who are just using steroids? Not so much.