That's kind of a "depends" question. If you've currently got a lot of natural potential left, doing a cycle could theoretically get you closer to your natural limit. But if you're already close to your natural limit, you'll end up pushing past it, and when you come off the cycle you'll go back to where you would be without it.
Most of the people who do cycle recommend that you don't do it until you've already basically gone as far as you can naturally. This is because you can make those natural gains for free relatively easy.
I think a lot of the problems with steroids is that people see it as "cheating." Just inject this stuff into your ass and you'll explode! The thing that people don't realize though, is that the people juicing (at least the ones who do it and get huge) are absolutely giving everything they have day in and day out in the gym. They're working way harder than most people. It's not a get huge quick scheme. You've still got to put in the effort. So if you're not putting in that kind of effort naturally, it's seen as somewhat of a waste of time.
You'll definitely still make quicker progress, but it's kind of a question of, why don't you just bust your ass without it and see where that gets you, before taking the expensive option?
If you're really curious, head over to the T-Nation forums. They have one entirely devoted to steroid use, with people who've done one cycle and guys who've been on a continuous one for decades. They're very knowledgeable, and it doesn't have the same stigma there that it does in most other places.
There was a thread on there talking about the stigma, and why it is the way it is, and someone mentioned something that I thought was pretty spot on. There's this negative stigma associated with testosterone supplementation, but no one seems to care that millions of women take sex hormones just so they can have sex (or to control acne, or the myriad of other superficial uses of it). Birth control is just female sex hormone, and it's used in mass numbers for reasons that aren't any "better" than testosterone. It's a weird dynamic our society has.