Controlled substances, androgens

Certain medicines may not be imported under the personal importation provisions, including drugs of abuse, such as narcotics, amphetamines and psychotropic substances, and anabolic substances, androgenic steroids and treatments for alcohol and drug addiction. There are also controls over certain other medicines including erythropoietin, growth hormones and gonadotrophins. 

Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AASs) are listed as a Schedule III drugs in accord with the United States Controlled Substances Act (CSA). 

Fusing a furazan on to ring A affords the potent anabolic androgen furazabol, yet another compound on the DEA List of Controlled Substances. This dmg can be readily prepared by a three-step sequence. Reaction of androsta-17a-methylandrostan-17/3-3-one (15-2) with tcrt-butyl nitrite in the presence of mineral acid in effect oxidizes the position next to the carbonyl, converting the methylene to a ketone masked as its oxime, 24-1 (Scheme 5.24). The ketone at C3 is then itself converted to its oxime, 24-2, by means of hydroxylamine. Heating that product with base closes the heterocyclic ring (24-3). 

In the United States, most of the androgens and anabolic steroid products are subject to control by the U.S. Federal Control Substances Act as amended by the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990 as Schedule III drugs. 

Since Williams (1964) proposed that the alarm substance acts as a predator deterrent, there has been one direct test of his hypothesis. Bernstein and Smith (1983) treated fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) with androgen, a process that eliminates ASCs from the skin (Smith, 1973). They then observed the feeding behavior of rainbow trout presented with androgen-treated minnows without ASCs and untreated control minnows with ASCs. The trout showed no significant preference for either type of minnow even though the same test procedure did detect a preference for liver over commercial food pellets. The results indicate that the presence of ASCs in the skin does not act as a deterrent to rainbow trout. This is consistent with the widespread use of minnows, including fathead minnows, as bait fish by sports fishermen. 

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