“The issue of steroid use in sports has become more prevalent, pressing and controversial over the past several years,” said Dean Nora V. Demleitner. “By hosting this conference, Hofstra Law brings together key experts and stakeholders who will examine steroid use from a variety of perspectives, as well as positively impact the potential policy, legislative and legal approaches that will surely emerge in the near future.”

The idea for the conference was initially conceived in response to student interest in the policymaking role of Congress as it pertains to sports.  Working with Law School administrators and students, Hofstra Law alumnus Rick Collins ’84, a partner at Collins, McDonald & Gann, P.C., who specializes in the nutrition, fitness and bodybuilding fields, is directing the symposium. Conference presenters and panelists will examine steroids from a variety of angles, including the use of steroids for performance enhancement in sports and the current system of catching the “dopers,” as well as the role of government in regulating non-medical steroid use outside athletics.

The symposium keynote speaker will be Richard W. Pound. Pound is an accomplished international attorney in Montreal, where he is a partner in the law firm of Stikeman Elliott.

Pound has been named to Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world for his relentless efforts to rid sports of performance-enhancing drugs. Pound previously served as president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). He was chancellor of McGill University in Montreal for 10 years. Pound also is a current member, and former vice president, of the International Olympic Committee.

The schedule for the symposium will be as follows:

10 a.m.-noon — Screening of Bigger Faster Stronger and Q&A Session with Director Chris Bell

Noon-1 p.m. — Lunch and CLE Registration

1-1:30 p.m. — Welcome and Keynote Address by Richard W. Pound

1:30-2:45 p.m. — Panel Discussion: “The Anti-Doping Movement: Athletes’ Health and Rights”

3:00-4:15 p.m. — Panel Discussion: “Beyond Sports: A Steroid Nation?”

Panelists will consist of a range of experts on the conference topic, including doctors, lawyers, athletes, professional sport executives and law enforcement personnel.

All conference events will take place at Hofstra Law School on the main Hofstra University, South Campus. For more information, please visit law.hofstra.edu/events.

Hofstra Law School prepares passionate students to make an impact in their communities and beyond. Accredited by the American Bar Association and ranked in the top 100 law schools nationwide, Hofstra Law is located on the campus of Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. The Law School offers both full-time and part-time Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree programs as well as Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree programs in American Legal Studies (for foreign law graduates) and Family Law.

Source: Hofstra University

CONTACT:  Kristen McMahon of Hofstra Law School, +1-516-463-4252 or
Kristen.D.McMahon@hofstra.edu

Web Site:  http://law.hofstra.edu/

“We’ve got the CFL,” Pound said. “It’s like a bad scene from the NHL. They say, ‘We don’t test in the Canadian Football League because we don’t need to test — there’s no drug use.’ Helloooo. We’re like a refuge for all the Americans… a summer camp for NFL players who have been suspended for drug use.”

This weekend, John Fahey, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), publicly urged the CFL to adopt an anti-doping testing program. Fahey was in Montreal for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Executive Committee and Foundation Board meeting. Fahey made his comments just prior to the 2008 CFL Grey Cup Final between the Calgary Stampeders and the Montreal Alouettes (“WADA chief challenges CFL to join fight against drugs,” November 23).

“To be here in Montreal on the weekend of the Grey Cup final and to find there is no doping code is very disappointing,” Fahey told Reuters following a WADA board meeting. “I understand there have been discussions and I hope they eventually lead to fruition.
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“There has been dialogue between WADA and the CFL over a period of time but that doesn’t suggest that there is anything imminent.
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“I can only say I think they are draw attention to the game in an adverse way by not having a (doping) code.
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“I don’t see how any sport cannot have an effective anti-doping program.”

The WADA chief’s criticisms of Canadian Football League’s lack of an effective steroid testing program were undermined by WADA board member and British IOC member Sir Craig Reedie who was also in Montreal for the WADA Foundation board meeting.

Sir Reedie hihglighted the failure to implement an effective anti-doping program at WADA due to the noncompliance of over half of the signatories to the WADA code at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (“Drug Rules ‘Not Enforced’,” November 23).

Rules that bind athletes to give details of their daily movements to drugs testers are not being enforced in “half the countries in the world”, it was claimed on Thursday [...]

Sir Craig Reedie, British IOC member and a board member of the WADA, said “half the world” was not operating the system properly – WADA regulations state that athletes must provide testers with their whereabouts for an hour each day.
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Reedie said: “The one issue the world of sport will want clearing up is in relation to whereabouts regulations for athletes.
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“What has come out of Beijing is that half the world operates the system properly and half the world does not.
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“This has come out of a survey done of national Olympic committees, and some are struggling with the whereabouts rules.
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“We have to get the system to work properly so that everyone is operating in the same way.”

The major failure to implement the WADA code by the majority of its signatories compounds the major failure of WADA procedures and protocols to effectively catch dopers. WADA has not developed an anti-doping protocol that effectively closes the testosterone loophole, that has ever detected human growth hormone in athletes, or has thwarted the use of numerous banned blood boosting techniques and drugs. The sad truth is that WADA’s steroid testing program, far from Fahey’s “effective anti-doping program,” is only marginally more effective than the CFL’s drug testing program i.e. no testing at all.

[H]e would be in charge of overseeing the work of the sports world’s top appeals body and would also control the appointment of arbitrators who rule on disputes.

This could be disastrous for the future of drug testing

Norm Fost, MD Arguing For the Motion “We should accept performance-enhancing drugs in competitive sports”

Radley Balko Arguing For the Motion “We should accept performance-enhancing drugs in competitive sports”

Julian Savulescu Arguing For the Motion “We should accept performance-enhancing drugs in competitive sports”

Youtube has more videos and NPR has unedited audio of the debate too.

So I go into someone’s office who is a congressman and I’m a 33-year old kid at the time and I’m walking into his office… I’m really nervous. This guy is going to know it all – he’s going to have all the facts down, he’s going to be a politician, boom, boom, boom!”

But when I realized after the first or second question that he really didn’t know what he was talking about, then it was game on. It kind of became fun. Ok, let me ask him the really hard questions. And on every single question, he stumbled on. It’s interesting they’re going to have another congressional hearing into steroids in baseball and Henry Waxman is the guy who’s calling these hearings; it’s going to be interesting what people who see the film are going to think about him in the hearings. He really does not come off well in the film. He really doesn’t have an idea as to why he’s pressing this issue. The only reason he is pressing the issue is he knows in his heart that steroids are illegal and he doesn’t want your kids to get them. The idea of being the politician who saves the children it always looks good.

It’s disconcerting to hear about that legislators spearheading action of steroids in professional sports are pretty ignorant about the topic of anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs.

Well, yes of course it concerns me anytime you see something like that going on. You know, what if they are that dumb about Iraq? And about terrorism? And about things that could really affect our lives every day? So, it does concern me to see them not be able to figure out how to legislate things. But it was enlightening in a way. I always thought these congressmen were so perfect. It was interesting to see them in a different light. But it is good to see that they don’t know everything especially when you’re dealing with politics and the upcoming election. It makes you think twice about politicians. What do they really know? Are they really just controlled by what they are told? Is it something that someone just comes in and hands them a piece of paper and says here is your briefing today, steroids are bad.

The entire transcript of my interview with steroid documentarian Christopher Bell is now online at MESO-Rx. He discusses various issues as well as the people he interviewed, including Henry Waxman, Donald Hooton, Gary Wadler, Dick Pound, John Romano, Rick Collins, and William Llewellyn:

Interview with Christopher Bell, Director of “Bigger Stronger Faster”

Panelists for the debate were Radley Balko of Reason magazine, Norman Fost, director of the Bioethics Program at the University of Wisconsin, and Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and of the Program on Ethics and Biosciences in the James Martin 21st Century School, speaking for the motion. Sportcaster George Michael, former Major League Baseball all-star and founder of the iWon’t Cheat Foundation Dale Murphy and Richard Pound, former chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, spoke against the motion. Sports and broadcast host Bob Costas served as moderator.

I have to wonder who selected the panelists because they certainly stacked the deck in favor of panelists arguing for the motion of accepting performance-enhancing drugs in sports. It was an incredibly uneven playing field for this debate with three academics and intellectuals debating a jock, a sportswriter, and the widely lampooned Dick Pound. Why in the world did they not select equally matched, academically-qualified panelists to argue against the motion? Charles Yesalis, PhD and John Hoberman, PhD are steroid and doping experts who are highly respected by mostly everyone on both sides of the issue. The panelist selection was a disappointment for the anti-doping position.

http://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/TranscriptContainer/PerformanceEnhancingDrugs%20011508.pdf