NCRI – Over 50 percent of Iranian national athletes take performance-enhancing drugs to help them improve their records.
 
Eight out of nine members of national weight lifting team used steroid in their international competitions.

Weight lifting has been one of the very few athletic fields that Iranians have had good chances of brining medals.

The mullahs' government instead of fighting the drug use by the members of Iranian national teams is promoting the use of illicit drugs by not only the weight lifters but by the rest of national competitors.

Drug stores are not regulated and sell steroids to all requiring no prescription.  Buying other pain relievers sometimes is more difficult than having access to performance-enhancing drugs.

Aside from steroid, drug addiction has been a major problem in Iran. In a report by the state-run news agency Borna out in September, 300 new teenage drug addicts join the already three million others in the country.