Sound the alarm: – Extremely much

– We have seen a massive increase from February/March until now. There is usually an upturn in doping consignments towards the summer each year, but this year there has been an extreme and surprising amount, both in the form of small and large consignments.

That’s what customs inspector Lars Syversen says as he lists some of the discoveries he and his colleagues have made over the past few months. The most common substances such as testosterone and trenbolone are still regulars.

In addition, large quantities of SARMs (selective androgen receptor modulators) were discovered – a drug that was originally developed against, among other things, muscle wasting and osteoporosis, but which has also become a regular doping agent.

– Violent increase

– There has been a tremendous increase in shipments of both SARMs and anabolic steroids. There are both large seizures that are obviously intended for resale, but also individual parcels intended for personal use, says Syversen to Dagbladet.

Recently, the customs officers have uncovered a particularly large number of consignments which have apparently been sent from Asia. Packages that have contained both doping agents and substances to prevent side effects.

– Here we see that people order “sets” with both performance-enhancing, muscle-building, anti-side-effect agents and potency pills. There are packages of funds to use both during and after treatment. We see that doping is ordered for the whole country, from north to south. But it is impossible to know where these products actually come from, what they contain and what the effect will be on the body of the person who takes them, says Syversen.

Great demand – little supply

Morten Heierdal in Antidoping Norway is not surprised when he hears about the customs’ findings in recent months. Their preventive work and contact with the doping community paint a picture of a market with great demand.

– What we hear from the environment and prisons is that there has been a period of poor access to doping preparations. Many are still experiencing a period of drought. The situation is twofold – the importation has been difficult due to the pandemic and a couple of the large networks and their production have been taken out by the police in recent years, explains Heierdal.

He himself works in the Doping contact at Antidoping Norway. There they have so far not experienced any marked onset beyond the normal, but the contact with the environment in the prisons has nevertheless given them information about the status in the environment.

– A former seller who serves told me that there were long waiting lists of customers now. There are many people who want to buy, and that may have triggered that more people try to order, also larger quantities, and take a chance to try to serve the demand, says Heierdal.

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