The supply of image and performance enhancing drugs (IPED) to local non-elite users in England: Resilient traditional and newly emergent methods

Coomber, Ross and Salinas, Mike (2019) The supply of image and performance enhancing drugs (IPED) to local non-elite users in England: Resilient traditional and newly emergent methods. In: Human Enhancement Drugs. Routledge Studies in Crime and Society . Routledge. ISBN 9781138552791

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Abstract

Traditional access to image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs) for hard-core body builders in serious free weight gyms has often been directly studied through gym owners or those close to them. In the past, the IPED using population was smaller, less mainstream and more reliant on those with the right contacts facilitating access to them. Recent evidence suggests that, as with other illicit drug markets, the IPED market has become more differentiated and has evolved to incorporate both new technologies, such as online pharmacies, as well as the new social and cultural conditions within which IPED use occurs. This chapter will draw on two distinct research studies on IPED supply at the local level: one that explores how and why traditional routes persevere in some local contexts, and a second that looks at how the social supply of IPED between gym users, along with internet sourcing is changing the shape and nature of IPED supply to other non-elite users. In a broader context of drug market differentiation and with a focus on trust, product quality and practice this chapter considers the impact that the changing nature of IPED user/supplier relationships in England.