The seedy beachside town of Pattay is enticing young Australians with promises of quick-tracked muscle. But the drugs they buy there are illegal in their home country, fuelling a flourishing black market and posing serious legal and health risks.
STEroids Thailand
The pills and injectable steroids sold at pharmacies in Pattaya are typically anabolic-androgenic steroids, synthetic variants of the naturally occurring male sex hormone testosterone. Combined with other supplements in a process known as “stacking”, they build mass by increasing the body’s natural supply of protein and the production of red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the muscles. But they can also have other health complications, including liver damage and cardiovascular problems such as high cholesterol.
A few pharmacies in Pattay boldly advertise steroid brands on their shop-front windows. One, opposite a pub on Beach Road Soi 7, sells Andriol, a tablet form of the drug oestrogen, and Testoviron, a testosterone injection. They cost 10 times less than the same products in Australia, where their use is strictly regulated and can be punishable by a year in prison.
Michael Dorn, 20, from Sydney, is part of a burgeoning amateur bodybuilding subculture that sees anabolic steroids and growth hormones as the fastest route to a muscular physique. But he, and hundreds like him, face prosecution back home because they buy and possess the substances without a prescription, which is a violation of the country’s strict laws. Instead, they travel to Thailand for so-called steroid vacations. Steroids Thailand