Strengthening the steroid law: Protecting young athletes

With the passage of a bill that bans over-the-counter sales of steroid precursors, the government has struck a needed blow against their inappropriate and dangerous use.

Editorial. Dec. 6, 2004.

In the midst of St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire's 1998 run at Roger Maris' single-season home run record of 61, a reporter spotted a bottle of androstenedione in his locker. Eight years earlier, anabolic and androgenic steroids had been classified schedule III controlled substances, but andro, as it was popularly known, was merely a steroid precursor, a prohormone, and therefore legal and widely available over the counter.

There was some controversy over McGwire's use of andro to push him to a then-record 70 home runs, but there also were many reports of young athletes, inspired by McGwire's fame and performance, stocking up on andro in hopes of building strength in a flash -- potential side effects such as acne, premature baldness, infertility, kidney and liver damage, and pancreatic cancer be damned.

In fact, research released last year in the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study found that 3.5% of students had used anabolic steroids, and 45% said they carried no great risk. The specter of precursors such as andro readily available on the market threatened to send those numbers up higher as the years went on.

Fortunately, something has been done to arrest that development, before young athletes, or anyone seeking to get a buff body out of a bottle, arrests their own body's natural development.