In early December this year, bodybuilder Toney Freeman was arrested in Sunsvall, Sweden, for drug use. While signing autographs to fans in a shop, police arrived and publically arrested Freeman. Now this might seem odd to you for a number of reasons. Freeman, an American, was arrested halfway across the world for drug use. How is this possible? Was there an international warrant out for his arrest? Perhaps one for selling/distributing drugs?
Well, considering there are likely hundreds of thousands of people in North America using steroids (there are probably a dozen or more at the one gym I go to here in nothing-town, Canada), and of those who use, a good percentage probably distribute. There are probably tens of thousands of people who distribute steroids (or other figure enhancement drugs) in North America, and they can barely get arrested in their own country for doing so. An international warrant would be like the high school pot dealer having a warrant for his arrest in another country. Completely absurd.
So how did Freeman get arrested in Sweden? Was he doing drugs in public? Now this is an offense that you can see that you might be arrested for in a foreign country. If it’s against their laws, you can’t do it in their country. You can drink on the street in most of Europe, but you could get arrested in North America for doing the same. Fine, so if you’re actively breaking a law in a country, you can get arrested. Fair. But Freeman was signing autographs. He wasn’t injecting drugs in front of his fans.
So let’s think about this, steroids aren’t exactly the easiest drug to hide the effect of! Functional alcoholics might fly under the radar, but bodybuilders smash the scanners. So, it’s obvious. You see a man who is 5’9, three hundred pounds, and has veins popping out of his palms? Alarm bells go off. But still, how can obvious drug use get you arrested in a country where that drug is illegal…if you’re not using it in that country?
Here’s the kicker. In Sweden, it’s illegal to have the narcotic…IN YOUR SYSTEM. Arrested individuals are subjected to a blood test where trace levels in the system are enough to get you a personal-use-minor-drug-offence, punishable by up to six months in prison. The same goes for drugs like marijuana, which also has a zero-tolerance policy in Sweden. So, if you had some marijuana in say, Amsterdam, where possession, distribution, and consumption are legal, and you flew to Sweden the next day… you could get arrested.
Its one thing (and in my opinion, not necessarily such a great one either) for a government to control trade and markets, and they can do that to some extent by trying to erase markets, such as the narcotics market. Frankly, most drug violence is caused by the illegal nature of the drug and not the effects of the drugs themselves. In other words, the real social cost of illegal drugs is guns not overdoses. However, that’s a whole other story.
The point here is that the government is controlling the substances in your body. What’s next? You could be arrested for having high LDL levels in your blood? What if you just naturally have very high levels of growth hormone and testosterone, and the next person over with naturally very low levels takes just enough to be the same as you? Diabetics taking insulin? Just the mere thought of a government controlling your substance intake in any respect should give you shivers.
If this kind of news story doesn’t shock you, or make you uncomfortable, maybe it’s because you’re so used to it. I mean, governments already have large control your disposable income, your access to substances including food (through subsidies and other market controls), when you have to go to school and what you have to learn, what car you can drive (through individual insurance), what lines you can cross and how often (borders), and how long the grass on your lawn can grow.
Forget steroids. Maybe a few more things on the above list should make you uncomfortable.
