Originally published Dec 15, 1983

Dr. Robert Kerr says he didn't find steroids , they found him.

"I was a rugby player. I was in my second year of (medical) practice and would work out at a gym a number of times a week," Kerr said. "I was approached by friends at the gym who would show me a bottle of Dianabol or something else they had bought down in Mexico. They'd ask me if I had any idea how they should take it or how safe the stuff was. That's when I realized just how many people were taking anabolic drugs. "

That was 16 years ago. Since then, Kerr says he has prescribed steroids for more than 10,000 athletes. He says more than 50 percent of his Southern California sports medicine practice involves anabolic patients. "And if I weren't so selective, it would be much higher than that," Kerr said. "If somebody wanted to just dispense anabolic steroids - do nothing but that - he'd have more patients than he'd ever want. "

While physicians all over the country are wrestling with the question of whether or not to prescribe anabolic drugs to their athlete-patients, Kerr says he has no such reservations. Kerr says he never has.

"All physicians have the philosophy that people shouldn't take medicine they don't really need," Kerr said. "And I think that's a smart idea. Unfortunately, people do take things they don't really need.

"We all know the dangers of cigarette smoking. But people still smoke. We all know that excessive amounts of alcohol are harmful. People drive over 55 miles per hour on the highway. So people do what they damn well please.

"And while athletes might not drink and they might not smoke, they are going to take anabolic steroids to a certain extent. So, what I think we, as physicians, need to do is try and work with them and educate them and guide them and try and protect them to a certain extent. "

Kerr feels that if physicians turn their backs on athletes desiring steroids , the athletes are just going to get them from the black market, where they will get neither "guidance" nor "protection. "

"There are two ways to get anabolic steroids ," Kerr said. "Through a physician and pharmacist or through the black market. I'd say probably 999 out of 1,000 athletes are receiving theirs through the black market.

"On the black market, you can buy everything and anything in the way of anabolic drugs; things that are not legal in this country, things that have been shown to be harmful to humans. You're going to find medication that was developed for racehorses, not for humans. Medication that was meant to make bigger research monkeys, not larger athletes.

"That's why we have a responsibility to guide them, to tell them not to take those things.

"I saw a guy the other day. I had seen him for anabolic steroids in the past. But I hadn't seen him for the past year. He told me, for the past year, he'd been getting them on the black market.

"His blood pressure was sky-high. He had acne all over his back and shoulders. He was having difficulty developing an erection. And he knows it's

because of what he's been taking. And what he was taking were things that, if used correctly, can work just fine. But he had been using them incorrectly and had been taking much more medication than he should have. "

Not surprisingly, not everyone buys Kerr's reasoning.

"That same philosophy can be argued, with equal accuracy, for a pimp," said Ron Mix, a former Hall of Fame offensive lineman with the San Diego Chargers. "A pimp could say if he didn't supply the whores on the street, someone else would. He could say that at least he's making sure his girls are free of disease.

"Or how about a bank robber. He could say that if he didn't break-and- enter nonviolently, someone else might break in and rob it under the threat of a gun. No, I can't buy that. That's a stupid, self-serving argument to justify an unjustifiable action. "

Robert Baxley has trouble believing Kerr, too. "That's bull," said Baxley, a San Diego attorney who has represented several former NFL players in

drug-related suits against the league. "Guys like that do it (prescribe drugs to athletes) because they're making money off of it. The prescribing of illegal drugs is one of the biggest businesses in the United States. "

Jeff Everson, an exercise physiologist and former strength coach at the University of Wisconsin, also thinks Kerr's reasons for prescribing steroids are probably more economical than philosophical.

"He'll come out in a magazine article," said Everson, who used steroids briefly in the mid-1970s as a competitive powerlifter, "and he'll say something like, 'since growth hormone sells for $800 for about a six- or seven-week crack and steroids only cost about $100, you should use the growth hormone because it's so much better. '

"Now, there's no scientific proof of that whatsoever. Any endocrinologist you talk to will tell you that's a crock of bleep. I know three or four individuals who've used growth hormone and got absolutely nothing out of it.

"Then, he'll come out in another article and say he doesn't really know why it's happening, but a lot of males who use growth hormone have been coming to him and saying their penises have been getting bigger since using this stuff. So naturally, all these guys with all these screwed up personalities anyway, read this stuff and go, 'Geez, look what's going to happen. ' And so they go spend all this money.

"I've talked to guys in the gyms out on the West Coast. They say they've got kids going out there from all over the country because of (Kerr's) articles, paying him all kinds of money for growth hormones.

"And they don't get anything out of them at all. "

Kerr says he has anabolic patients in just about every sport imaginable. He says he treats body-builders, weightlifters, shotputters, sprinters, high jumpers, football players, even baseball players.

"Body-building and weightlifting are probably one and two," he said. ''But football is very prominent. I see them at various times of the year. Right now, I'm seeing guys that hope to remain on or make the USFL teams. I'll probably see them for another few weeks. Then I won't see them again until next year.

"In February or March, I might see some NFL players. But more likely, they won't come in until May or June. But there's always going to be at least one dumb lineman who comes in a week before camp and wants to be 30 pounds heavier.

"College guys I'll usually see in the early spring and again in the early summer. "

Kerr says he gives each and every one of his anabolic patients a thorough examination and then sits down with them and explains the pros and cons of steroids .

"I tell them about every side effect I've ever heard of," Kerr said. "I even give them a declaration that lists everything that's theoretically possible and have them sign it, so that they'll read it and not just ignore it. "

He also says he runs blood studies and takes nine urine tests and a sperm count in his non-vasectomized male patients. He says he repeats this process every three months that the patient remains on steroids . He charges $70 for the first visit, but doesn't charge for follow-up consultations.

"That way," he said, "they know they can always afford to let me know about a problem. "

Kerr believes more and more physicians across the country must follow his lead because anabolic drugs are not going to magically disappear. Like it or not, for better or worse, he says, they are here to stay.

"I bet there are a million athletes in this country alone who are taking black market anabolic steroids ," Kerr said. "If the government says drug stores cannot sell anabolic drugs, physicians can't prescribe anabolic drugs, that's like one drop of water going over a dam as far as the effect it would have on anabolic drug use in the country.

"You can go to practically any gym in the country and there's somebody at that gym who can arrange to get you anabolic drugs. Anyone, anything you like.

''Unless you could totally eliminate all of the anabolic drugs in the world, you've got no way of controlling them. Sure, you could say, well, we could stop the black market sale of anabolic drugs. But I've talked to law enforcement agencies. They say they've got so much trouble controlling narcotics, that anabolic steroids are at the bottom of their list of priorities.

"They say they'll never get to it. They say they could care less."