A legitimate perspective, but very different from mine.
I agree that there are far worse things health-wise than AAS; in fact the majority of the population in most developed countries seem to be engaged in the wholesale destruction of their collective health through, smoking, drinking and atrocious nutrition. In terms of cost/benefit calculations, governments would be better advised to go after the producers of e.g., high fructose corn syrup, than people like Eric. But that's a different rant...
It's on life expectancy that I differ - probably understandably since I'm already well into my 60s, and only started training 6 years ago (precisely because I wanted to do something about what I perceived to be my impending rapid physical degeneration). And this is from someone lucky enough to have some pretty good genetics: my paternal grandfather and father both made it to 75, despite the fact that they smoked heavily (although my Dad quite his 3 pack/day Luckies habit in his mid-forties) and drank moderately to heavily and, in my father's case, had a bad hear valve as a result of having had rheumatic fever as a kid. My mother is still alive, pushing 90 and her 5 brothers and sisters and my grandmother all made it into their late 80s mid nineties. And none of these folks ever did much in the way of exercise or nutrition (although for a good long portion of their lives they also were not eating the sort of garbage food that became such a big part of our diet starting (in a big way) in the 60s. I never smoked, never drank much and have drunk even less for the past 20 years, so with the family history of longevity, I figured I was set. Except that starting around 54-55 I started to feel like crap. Stiff, sore, prone to colds, moody, blue a lot of the time, already starting to get noticeably round and stoop-shouldered, etc., etc. When I finally blew out a couple of lumbar disks for no obvious reason, I decided a change was in order. Once I had recovered sufficiently I started lifting and have been at it ever since. All of the shit that used to ail me has gradually gone away. My goal now is 120 and, on the way, I plan to demolish the records that 90-something is setting in the bench press these days (and I'll do it RAW and (maybe) natural) As far as AAS are concerned, I just regard it as another potential item in the tool box that i'll need to get there, one that I am as unwilling to let get in the way of the larger goal as I am willing to explore what it has to contribute..