Russia has funded the new Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RusADA) with new equipment and $5 million. RusADA is an independent agency created to test athletes for anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Representatives from RusADA are visiting the United States to learn more about the U.S. doping control program - United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) - and strengthen relationships with their U.S. counterparts. Read the rest of this entry »
Here are the video clips of panelists in the steroid debate that argue for the use of anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs in competitive sports i.e. Norm Fost, Julian Savulescu and Radley Balko. The video of panelists arguing against the motion, Dick Pound, Dale Murphy, George Michaels is available here. Read the rest of this entry »
Last week, I told you about a fascinating debate where panelists argued for and against the motion “We should accept performance enhancing drugs in competitive sports.” Although I thought the panel against the motion was outmatched by Norm Fost, Julian Savulescu and Radley Balko, it was still a very interesting debate. Now video and audio of the debate is available. Read the rest of this entry »
Matt Welch of the Reason blog tells us about a new steroids in baseball website that critically examines assumptions, particularly those in the Mitchell Report, about steroids and performance-enhancing drugs as they related to Major League Baseball. Eric Walker’s stated goal behind the website:
The purpose of these pages is to methodically dissect those claims and assumptions and compare each with what is actually known about it.
He analyzes several steroid assertions and supports each analysis with several scholarly and scientific citations. Some of his conclusions:
- Steroids and Home Runs: “No evidence” that steroids have affected home-run hitting.
- Steroid Side Effects: The side effects of anabolic steroids have been “grossly exaggerated.”
- KidsĀ and Role Models: Adolescents who self-identify with a role model are no more likely to use drugs than those without a role model.
- Kids and Sports Heroes: Teenagers, overwhelming male, who self-identify with a sports role model are slightly less likely to use drugs.
Source: Reason blog; Eric Walker’s Steroid website
Wow! This is the most impressive panel of intellectuals arguing that performance enhancing drugs, such as anabolic steroids and growth hormone, should be accepted in professional sports. An Oxford-style debate presented by Intelligence Squared US and sponsored by the Rosenkranz Foundation debatedĀ the motion, “We should accept performance-enhancing drugs in competitive sports.”
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’ve written a lot about the loophole of therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) that allows athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids, growth hormone, amphetamines, etc. for a competitive advantage. I used the 2006 Tour de France as a prime example, where 60% of drug-tested riders had a TUE for some banned substance. The congressional hearings on the Mitchell Report included testimony that over 8% of Major League Baseball players had TUEs for ADD/ADHD drugs such as Adderall or Ritalin.
Gary Gaffney, M.D., from the University of Iowa College of Medicine, offers a defense of TUEs in his blog: Read the rest of this entry »
The congressional hearing entitled “The Mitchell Report: The Illegal Use of Steroids in Major League Baseball”Ā is underway right now. I have previously discussed the loophole offered by therapeutic use exemptions that allow professional athletes to use performance enhancing drugs, including steroids, growth hormone and/or testosterone. The number of therapeutic use exemptions or TUEs were not revealed in the Mitchell Report.
Congressman John Tierney (D-MA) revealed that Major League Baseball has granted over 100 therapeutic use exemptions to athletes for amphetamines and related stimulant drugs to treat ADHD. Of course, since the focus of the Mitchell report and the CongressionalĀ hearings are on the evils of steroids, the continuing problem of amphetamines in baseball will likely not be seriously investigated at this point.
I am shocked at the misinformation regarding lidocaine that has circulated the media news sitesĀ and blogosphere as it relates to major league baseball player Roger Clemens. The addition of lidocaine to a B-12 injection didn’t seem unusual to me or even in need of an explanation. I didn’t think I need bother to comment upon it; surely, someone would explain it.
ESPN interviewed two “experts” - Dr. Ken Dretchen, pharmacology department chair at Georgetown University and Dr. John F. Dombrowski, director of pain medicine at the Washington Pain Center. They were clueless. Amazing. But I definitely won’t hold it against them. They are most certainly experts in their respective fields, just not experts on doping. Read the rest of this entry »
The Roger Clemens interview with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes will turn out to be a disaster for Clemens. Attorney Rusty Hardin should be fired for advising him and speaking out for him in the press.
Hardin told the press recently that Clemens received multiple injections throughout his career. He even compared the use of, shall we say performance-enhancing injections, to those of a high-performance racehorse. Great analogy (sarcasm) - compare a suspected doper to another sport that has historically been plagued by doping.
The California Milk Processor Board (CMPB), better known as the producers of the “Got Milk?” campaigns, has decided to re-release two of the five “Got Milk?” spoofs of the steroids in baseball scandal. This was timed to take advantage of the heightened media coverage and public awareness resulting from the recent allegations of steroid use by MLB baseball players in the Mitchell Report. Read the rest of this entry »
