[Control measures for anabolic androgenic steroid medicines]

Anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) can cause serious adverse effects when used without a therapeutic purpose. This article aims to show that the AAS are susceptible to being sold on the black market. We also aim to describe how certain limitations on the health inspection services of the Galician health service to pursue these illegal actions prompted a regulatory initiative demanding that additional actions be granted to community pharmacies when dispensing AAS. Four pharmacy inspections detected the diversion of a total of 3118 packages of AAS, which led to the opening of four disciplinary proceedings. In two of these, specialized police forces were called in as there was sufficient evidence of possible diversion to gymnasiums, resulting in a police operation called Operation Fitness.