Mihalik, who once used steroids but now advocates for a clean workout regimen, is dubious of law enforcement crackdowns. He predicted the recent sweeps across the country will do little to stem the flow of steroids.

“I was thinking back to the days of Prohibition, where the government spends thousands, maybe millions of dollars in manpower and money and effort in a losing cause,” the muscular 59-year-old personal trainer lamented. “Because you can’t stop people from doing what they want to do.”

He said legalization and regulation are the only remedies.

“When I see them spending millions of dollars and agents that could be used for Homeland Security? I mean, we’ve got start worrying about our malls being blown up.”

He also warns that taking a substance whipped up in some guy’s basement carries its own peril.

“Who knows what impurity you’re injecting into your bloodstream?” he said.

Law enforcement officials who have carried out steroid raids echo that belief, saying they are often appalled by the filthy conditions of the labs.

“We found a dirty warehouse with bins of these vials laying around,” said Bill Walsh, an investigator in the Nassau County District Attorney’s office. “The end product looks fairly sophisticated, but where it’s made, you would never want to put this into your body.”

Labs have become more prevalent as dealers have realized that the process of cooking up steroids is relatively easy. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Erin Mulvey said that once dealers obtain the raw steroid powder, all they need is to do is add basic ingredients such as alcohol, peanut oil, flaxseed and sesame and cook the mixture up.

And because of sophisticated Internet encryption software, prosecutors have been stymied in determining the recipients of shipments made from these labs, which were largely sent to customers by mail. It is also difficult to determine the sources of the raw material because of encryption techniques, prosecutors said.

“We would love to know, ’Did it hit a kid? Did it hit a gym coach?”’ said Teri Corrigan, an assistant prosecutor in Nassau County. “Was the high school coach, God forbid, doing something stupid with the kids under his charge? We want to know that. We’re not there yet.”

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Lm Otero / AP file

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