Travis Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), urged the country’s attorneys general to start suing supplement companies using consumer protection laws. Tygart made his comments at the 2009 National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) summer conference on June 17, 2009 in Colorado Springs. Tygart wants the attorneys general to take action at the state level to further the USADA’s agenda of preventing competitive athletes from using dietary supplements that are prohibited by their respective sports and/or the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) (”USADA chief urges states to act on supplements,” June 19).
“If consumers could run the land, I think federal regulations would change,” Tygart said. “The political reality is that, unfortunately, we have to assume they’re not going to change. But that doesn’t deter you (states) from taking action.” [...]
For the states, however, this is a relatively new issue. If they make a move, they’ll probably have to turn to consumer-protection statutes. They could also look at recovering expenses for government-paid health care costs for treatment of people who get sick from supplement use, much the way they did in lawsuits against tobacco companies.
Rick Collins and Alan Feldstein, representing the law firm Collins, McDonald and Gann, identified state attorneys general use of consumer protection laws as a potentially serious “minefield” facing supplement companies at the International Society of Sports Nutrition Conference (ISSN) on June 15, 2009. Sports nutrition companies who focus on products aimed at improving performance are particularly vulnerable to such state attorneys general actions. Read more
The United Kingdom intends to expand its anabolic steroid laws in preparation for the 2012 London Olympics in response to pressure from the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The steroid law revision is largely a symbolic move by the United Kingdom. It is an attempt to appease WADA by showing their commitment anti-doping in sports; however, the personal use of anabolic steroids and the importation of anabolic steroids for personal use will continue to be permitted under UK steroid law. The proposed legislation is unlikely to have any effect on steroid use in the United Kingdom.
The new proposal seeks to make British steroid law consistent with the WADA prohibited substance list. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) recommended adding an additional 24 anabolic steroids (mostly marginally effective prohormones) and 2 non-steroidal agents to the existing list of 54 anabolic steroid and 5 growth hormones currently classified as Schedule 4 (IV) controlled substances under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Suggestions by the media that the proposed changes to UK steroid law are intended to protect the children are disingenuous. The driving forces behind the new steroid laws are IOC/WADA and the 2012 London Olympics (”Proposed control of 1-benzylpiperazine (BZP) and a group of substituted piperazines, as well as an additional 24 anabolic steroids and 2 non-steroidal agents,” May 21).
The original group of steroids were identified by reference to the International Olympic Commission Prohibited List. It is therefore appropriate for us to update our controls by reference to its successor, the World Anti-Doping Agency Prohibited List. It will provide consistency in our approach and is fully in line with the Government’s commitment to prevent the misuse of these substances both by the general public but also by elite athletes, particularly in the lead up to the London Olympics in 2012. [...]
The measure to control 24 additional anabolic steroid substances and 2 non-steroidal products under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 will support the Government’s commitment to strengthening the mechanisms to tackle doping in sport, targeting those facilitating doping and tackle trafficking, supply and manufacture of doping substances and those involved in such activities.
The IOC has long pressured the United Kingdom to criminalize personal use of steroids. Without changes to steroid possession laws, the IOC and WADA are unlikely to be satisfied by the Home Office’s latest recommendations. The United Kingdom’s permissive steroid possession laws will likely become increasingly problematic as the 2012 London Olympics approach. We expect the IOC to continue to lobby the U.K. government to adopt legislation that criminalizes mere use and possession of anabolic steroids.
The personal use of anabolic steroids and the importation of anabolic steroids for personal use remains explicitly permitted in the United Kingdom when in the form of a medicinal product under the new proposals. Read more
Dr. Richard Rydze is a vocal advocate of the use of recombinant human growth hormone (rHGH) for the treatment of tendon and ligament injuries. Dr. Rydze found HGH to be highly effective for this purpose based on the clinical results from his human growth hormone research project involving over 200 patients over the course of 5 years. Unfortunately, Dr. Rydze, as a 22-year member of the Pittsburgh Steelers medical staff and an internal medicine specialist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) was not in the best position to conduct such controversial HGH research in his private practice.
The societal stigma associated with performance-enhancing drugs and the legal restrictions on legitimate medical research by anti-steroid crusaders and the anti-doping movement quickly resulted in Dr. Rydze resignation from both the Pittsburgh Steelers organization and the UPMC after it was publicly disclosed that Rydze had purchased $150,000 worth of HGH and anabolic steroids from Signature Pharmacy with his credit card (”Former Steelers doctor embraced HGH,” January 15).
“I know it has caused me a lot of grief, simply because I believe in it and I know what it does,” Rydze said. “And to deny people the effect to heal better — that is the art of medicine, to make people heal. And using something off-label, which we use for many, many drugs … I don’t see how someone can single out one thing and say you can’t use it for off-label use. And you show me there is one side effect, and I’d be a believer. But I have never seen a side effect. And I just think it is just ignorance of people who don’t know. They just hear about it, and they assume it is bad.”
The use of human growth hormone was approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for a limited number of conditions**; the use of HGH for tendon and ligament injuries was not one of the FDA-approved indications. Any use of HGH for this purpose was considered “off-label.” An “off-label prescription” for a drug refers to its use by medical professionals to treat additional medical conditions and/or indications that were not originally approved by the FDA.
It is legal for physicians to use all FDA-approved pharmaceutical drugs for off-label purposes EXCEPT for HGH. The off-label use of human growth hormone (HGH) to accelerate healing in the treatment of tendon and ligament injuries remains illegal. Read more
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) reached an agreement with INTERPOL to faciliate international police cooperation in its politicized and moralistic campaign against the use of anabolic steroids for non-medical purposes (e.g. motivated by increased muscle size, improved strength, enhanced athletic performance and greater physical attractiveness). WADA has spearheaded the internationalization of steroid law with UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport with a stated objective of criminalizing personal non-medical steroid use by apply the force of international law behind the anti-doping WADA code.
Now, WADA has garnered the support of INTERPOL, the world’s largest police force, to act as a sort of international moral police upholding the steroids-are-evil morality, stamping out cheaters and protecting the children (”WADA strengthens ties with law enforcement agencies,” November 24).
“We’ve got to the point of the implementations of the arrangements with Interpol to help in the international fight we are endeavouring to undertake,” WADA president John Fahey told reporters. “This is a significant step forward.
“As demonstrated by the recent high profile doping cases and investigations, government action and the sharing of information between law enforcement agencies and anti-doping organisations can be crucial in exposing anti-doping rule violations that would not have been detected through testing.
“Law enforcement and government agencies possess investigative powers to attack the source and supply of illegal substances which sport does not have.”
One of the biggest problems caused by using the WADA code as the basis for international law is the fact that the overwhelming majority of non-medical steroid users are NOT athletes. So, instead of addressing the problem of doping in sports, it targets consenting adult non-athletes who have no relation to competitive sports.
Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United boss and hall of fame football (soccer) manager, has criticized the implementation of new steroid testing rules in the Premier League as a “real nuisance.” Barclay’s Premier League is the world’s most lucrative professional football league. The implementation of more vigilant steroid testing protocols comes as UK Sports, the United Kingdom’s anti-doping agency, incorporates “in-competition” anti-doping testing that is more consistent with that of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code (”Fergie Slams Drug Testing Reforms,” November 14).
“The procedures are becoming a real nuisance to us.”
Sir Alex Ferguson is particularly critical of the “whereabouts ruling.” The “whereabouts ruling” requires tested players to provide anti-doping officials with advance notification of their whereabouts for a particular hour each day year round. Read more
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) thanked governments around the world for joining them in their efforts to internationalize steroid law around the world during a ceremony to celebrate the ratification of the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport 2005 by over 100 countries.
WADA has explicitly stated their desire for all national governments to criminalize the use of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs as defined in the WADA code. WADA’s politically-correct and moralistic agenda, like U.S. steroid law enforcement policy, seeks to pressure and coerce other governments to think alike and conform to accept its policy as the defacto international anti-steroid policy (”WADA praises governments for anti-doping stance,” November 12).
WADA’s David Howman said Wednesday that 102 countries have ratified the UNESCO Convention on Doping in Sport since it came into force nearly two years ago. It means anti-doping measures become part of national law in the countries that have ratified the agreement.
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“We’re not there yet, we still have a long way to go. (Doping) is too easy in many countries because there are not strong enough laws,” Howman said. “Let’s enhance the fight through legislation.”
Steroid policy experts have been critical of the internationalization of steroid law for its highly politicized and moralistic agenda. Philip Sweitzer analyzes the trend of political correctness in the current debate on steroid law policy that has troubling consequences for countries around the world Read more
The International Olympic Committe (IOC) is pressuring the United Kingdom (UK) to criminalize the personal use of anabolic steroids prior to the 2012 London Olympics. The mere possession of anabolic steroids and/or the importation of steroids for personal use is not an offense under UK law. Consequently, athletes (and bodybuilders) in the United Kingdom can technically use anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) without violating UK law. But this may soon change in the next few years if the IOC has their way (”IOC pressure Great Britain to change doping laws ahead of London Olympics 2012,” November 8).
The IOC are growing increasingly frustrated at Britain’s refusal to introduce legislation to outlaw the possession, supply and distribution of performance-enhancing drugs.
Their stance leaves them out of step with other European countries such as Sweden, France, Italy, Greece and Germany where anti-doping laws mean athletes and their suppliers can go to jail.
Great Britain’s refusal to blindly follow the trend towards the internationalization of steroid law taking hold in the rest of the European Union presents a significant threat to the moral authority of the IOC. The IOC has promoted the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code as the guide for certain moral offenses that should be criminalized. Read more
The Federation of Gay Games (FGG) announced that the 2010 Cologne Gay Games VIII will implement testing for anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs in all sporting events. The testing at the 2010 Cologne Gay Games will be based on the stingent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) doping protocols. The 2006 Chicago Gay Games introduced drug testing to athletes in powerlifting, bodybuilding and wrestling for the first time.
Steroid testing at the Gay Games highlights the problem of therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) that allow the use of banned substances for legitimate medical indications; anabolic-androgenic steroids are routinely used in HIV patients. The WADA protocols allow for TUEs but do not address the acceptability of exemptions for the use of anabolic steroids for HIV. The Federation of Gay Games hopes to redefine and improve the WADA protocols by encouraging “mainstream sports become not just more accepting of gay athletes, but more accommodating of athletes with chronic medical concerns - especially HIV Read more
Dick Pound, anti-steroid crusader and former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), continued spreading his nonsensical steroid hysteria at a luncheon in Canada. Among other things, he said professional athletes who use steroids are sociopaths (”Anti-drug crusader pounds on doping: Dick Pound Recommends Stiffer Penalties,” April 11).
“Why should your child, or anybody’s child, become a chemical stockpile in order to be successful in sport simply because there’s some sociopath out there that pays no attention to his or her promise of doping-free sport,” said Pound.
With this statement, not only does Dick Pound equate steroid use with mental illness, he asserts that mental illness is widespread in elite sports.
The Wall Street Journal reports today that the muscle gains from anabolic steroid use may be permanent according to an unnamed and unpublished research study from Umeå University in Sweden (”Cheaters Do Prosper: Scientists in Sweden Make a Stunning Claim: The Benefits of Steroids May Never Go Away — Even When Athletes Quit Taking Them,” April 4).
When the researchers looked at the subjects’ muscles through a microscope, they made a surprising discovery: Rather than returning to their original proportions, the muscles of the steroid users who’d stopped taking the drug looked remarkably similar to those of the subjects who were still using. They also had larger muscle fibers and more growth-inducing “myonuclei” in their muscle cells than the nonsteroid users.
MESO-Rx has identified the research as belonging to Anders Ericsson in the Department of Integrative Medical Biology at Sweden’s Umea University. Ericsson’s doctoral thesis was entitled “Strength training and anabolic steroids: a comparative study of the trapezius, a shoulder muscle and the vastus lateralis, a thigh muscle, of strength trained athletes” and was submitted on October 6, 2006. The full text PDF is available online. Read more
The testosterone:epitestosterone ratio (T:E ratio) test is a commonly used test designed to catch athletes who artificially manipulate their testosterone levels (usually with exogenous testosterone). The T:E ratio is routinely used in doping protocols around the world at all levels of sport.
Unfortunately, the T:E ratio is not very effective. This has been common knowledge among drug tested athletes for some time. Dan Duchaine first alerted athletes decades ago with Victor Conte concurring more recently. Anti-doping experts such as Charles Yesalis and Don Catlin have reluctantly acknowledged that this is true.
It is not very reliable. It is flawed. The T:E ratio test results in a lot of false negatives (athletes use testosterone but don’t get caught) as well as false positives (innocent athletes test positive for steroid use).
A recent study that we learned about on Trust But Verify and reported on at Steroid Report explains why the test is unreliable and ineffective.
It appears that certain genotypes are more likely to have false negatives (athletes use testosterone but don’t get caught)and other genotypes are more likely to have false positives (innocent athletes test positive for steroid use) (”Doping Test in Sports Confounded by Common Genetic Trait,” March 21).
If you’re a genetically gifted athlete (i.e. you lack the gene that produces the enzyme UGT2B17), you can take an whopping injection of at least 360 milligrams of testosterone without getting caught by the testosterone:epitestosterone ratio test (T:E ratio). This testosterone loophole in drug testing has been known by athletes for decades (anecdotally). It is nice to have solid scientific evidence to confirm it.
The 360 mg corresponds to a 500 mg intramuscular injection of testosterone enanthate. Yes, many athletes can take this quantity of the anabolic-androgenic steroid testosterone and still pass current WADA doping controls.
The T:E ratio test discriminates based on the ethnicity of the athlete subjected to the doping protocol. This little bit of information is impossible to overlook.
So, which ethnic groups are most likely to have false negatives on the T:E ratio test?
The latest study suggests as many as 40% of athletes with UGT2B17 homozygous deletion/deletion genotype can take at least 500 mg of testosterone enanthate and still maintain a 4:1 T:E ratio. The following lists various ethnic groups with the estimated percentage that possess the “doping friendly” genotype (data extracted from here and here).
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78.0% – Mulatto (Brazilian)
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66.7% – Eastern Asian (Korean)
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57.3% – Cape Colored (Cape Town, South Africa)
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37.6% – Mexican Mestizo
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30.4% – Asian Pacific (Southeast Asian/Southern Chinese, Asian Indian, Japanese)
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29.1% – Black (African Americans, African Blacks, South/Central American Blacks)
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9.3% – White Caucasian (Swedish)
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3.5% – White Caucasian (primarily European)
Yes, athletes with UGT2B17 homozygous deletion/deletion genotype are much more likely to pass a doping test if they choose to cheat (false negative). And yes, certain ethnic groups are much more likely to possess this genotype.
What should WADA do about this? Is this a problem for professional sports or high school districts that routinely use the T:E ratio test?
It has been reported that IFBB Pro Bodybuilders who competed in the 2008 Arnold Classic were required for the first time to sign a contract subjecting them to random drug testing. Jim Lorimer, the promoter and co-founder of the Arnold Sports Festival, told male bodybuilding competitors in an athlete’s meeting that the IFBB implemented a new drug testing policy in January 2008.
In previous years, IFBB pro bodybuilders have agreed to IFBB Professional League Rules that assert the “Pro League has power and authority to conduct drug testing at designated events.”
However, Jim Lorimer confirmed last week that the IFBB will act upon that authority this year by implementing random drug testing.
Jim Lorimer told the athletes that every one of the over 30 sports federations competing in the Arnold Sports Festival has a testing protocol including the International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB). Lorimer discusses the existing “amateur” protocol in the IFBB but also announced that in January 2008 the IFBB has implemented a testing protocol in the IFBB Professional League to “protect integrity and future of the sport.” The testing was implemented in response to other professional sports being “killed by the publicity” surrounding doping. Details of the IFBB’s new testing protocol were not revealed only that “there will be some testing throughout the coming year.”
The IFBB is a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) Code. The president of the IFBB, Rafael Santonja, has been active in WADA meetings and oversees IFBB Anti-Doping Rules administered at the IFBB Amateur level. These doping controls are said to conform to provisions of the WADA code. These same doping controls have not been administered in the Professional League.
It is highly unlikely that any attempt at testing, even periodic random testing, would target anabolic steroids and the exhaustive list of performance enhancing drugs listed in the WADA Prohibited Substance List.
Further details will be posted as they become available.
Major League Baseball claimed, in the Mitchell Report, that they have not issued “therapeutic use exemptions” (TUE) for growth hormone (GH). The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) describes these medical exemptions as follows:
Athletes, like all others, may have illnesses or conditions that require them to take particular medications. If the medication an athlete is required to take to treat an illness or condition happens to fall under the Prohibited List, a Therapeutic Use Exemption may give that athlete the authorization to take the needed medicine.
An athletes could be permitted to use drugs that have performance-enhancing effects if they have been issued a TUE. A positive result of a doping test would be dismissed as a result of the TUE.
It is good to know that MLB has not issued TUEs for GH; of course, growth hormone is undetectable in current sports drug testing.
However, when the Mitchell Report asked for the total number of therapeutic use exemptions granted, the Commissioner’s Office refused to answer:
I asked for the number of therapeutic use exemptions granted each year for performance enhancing substances (without identifying the players involved) because therapeutic use exemptions have been a significant loophole in some drug testing programs. The Commissioner’s Office and the Players Association declined to provide that information on the ground that it is considered confidential under the joint program.
Is it possible that several players have TUEs to use anabolic steroids without concern about drug testing?
If reports of the number of TUEs issued at the 2006 Tour de France are any indicator, then the answer is a clear and resounding YES!
Sixty percent of the 105 riders subject to testing were issued therapuetic use exemptions by the International Cycling Union (UCI):
We follow the WADA rules and the WADA rules allow guys to have (the certificates) for certain things… It’s not particular to cycling.
The number of TUEs issued by Major League Baseball could potentially be a huge loophole in their drug testing procedures especially since their procedures are much more lax than those of WADA (World Anti-Doping Association).
