Study: Adults minimize steroid use as problem

NEW YORK (AP) — A study finds that American adults rank steroid use among adolescents as less of a problem than alcohol, bullying, marijuana and sexually transmitted diseases.

The study was co-commissioned by baseball’s Hall of Fame and released Thursday.

Those polled ranked cocaine and eating disorders as bigger problems. While 97 percent of the respondents believe steroids cause negative health effects, just 19 percent think steroid use is a big problem among high school students.

Hall President Jeff Idelson says the study shows that steroids and performance-enhancing substances “remain a mystery to the American public.”

The survey of 1,002 adults by was conducted by The Gallup Organization and commissioned by the Hall, the Taylor Hooton Foundation and the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society.

“The American people haven’t connected the dots between steroid use and our children,” said Neil Romano, former director of the White House office of drug abuse policy and an organizer of the study.

Added Don Hooton, whose son Taylor died from steroid use: “What has Congress done? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”